Trevor, Caci, and Jace

WE'VE MOVED

2007-03-29T01:59:00.000-06:00

ATTENTION: Our blog will not be hosted at blogspot any longer. You now can get the latest on the Chapmans at
http://www.jtrevorchapman.com
This new site will be updated three - four times a week. Go there now and don't forget to comment!

Brief History

2007-03-26T20:16:00.000-06:00

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

Update from the 12th to Yesterday

2007-03-26T15:08:00.000-06:00

Cac - here are the pictures, you can write about it. If you don't want them all to be centered view the picture in large format (click on it), download the image then re-upload it.

Zions

Jeep - Zions

Trevor's Newswriting Class

2007-03-25T19:50:00.000-06:00

Well, I am posting some of Trevor's articles from his comms class. He never conducts the interviews, so he makes quotes up for me and his friends. According to Trevor's Prof. he is the first one done with the articles and has the best grade (what the Prof. doesn't know is that he doesn't prepare).

This is Trevor - I am not extrememly proud of these articles--I whipped them up quickly so I could leave school and go home to Jace and Caci. But, Caci likes them, so we are posting them.

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War in Iraq? or China?

PROVO-UT. Years in Iraq, scores of deaths, new political party, new crude-oil-agreements, new uncertainties, new terrorist camps, new threats, new arguments and debates, but one old reason…

The communist state of China, estimated, in the next 20 years, to use twice the energy in one day of what the entire world currently consumes in one month—believed by experts to become the economical powerhouse of the world in the next five years; and with the largest population on the planet and nuclear capabilities the United States is not only threatened (being the only remaining superpower), but her very plush lifestyle may be pushed off the map by a larger, heavier, stronger and more demanding regime. Unless we imperialistically take the one element needed to survive this ever-growing potentially astronomical-tidal shift of powers, the US will be buried alive in a dark avalanche of socialist-world-domination.

How do we secure this magical element? We're America! We jump on oppurtunity--one such, a war, where the battlegrounds are directly above the most volatile and rich reserve of this "black" magic—the Middle Eastern States with all of her crude-oil.

This is a subject that few wish to speak candidly on because of the unstable nature of the debates surrounding it. Ironically, those that want the truth are the very ones that have made the truth impossible. They have done this by flooding the US with a sea of demand for political correctness which gives the illusion of "right" and "equality" and "tolerance" only masking the true face hidden from view.

"We're in Iraq for democracy." Right…and Bob and Tom in Massachusetts are just as "married" as my wife and I are.

Please don't misunderstand – creating a democratically equal government in Iraq is good. Demanding at gunpoint that terrorists stand down from free countries is good. But the reality of the matter is that there are no oil-reserves in the middle African states – therefore, we choose to call the same sick genocidal regimes and massacres "Tribal Warfare." Whereas, when this occurs where there is oil, we move in, take out what obstacles stand between us and the reservoirs of oil (usually this is the bad guy); then, in good Boy Scout fashion, we make the camp a little better than it looked when we arrived and never truly leave…after all, aren't we the world police?

Like always, college students seem to see the world with their still "20/20" vision. "I like my lifestyle and it is my government's responsibility to secure that lifestyle for me and my children." said Thor Hartwig, senior, studying Political Science. "China is our most imminent threat. Iraq is the key to winning the race."

Contrary, many fellow students, though seeing the true nature of our current situation and recognizing its ugly value, nonetheless, feel remorse for our unofficial imperialism.

"I'm just happy that I can elect people whom I hope make God-fearing decisions. Heaven knows I would never ask to be put into a situation where I have to decide what is currently being decided in reference to Iraq and China." said Caci Chapman, senior, majoring in Socio-Cultural Anthropology.

We might continue to lead our lives lethargically moving from one side of the debate then rolling to the other based on the whims of our moods and the writing style of the author of whatever article we read. We might even have a heavy opinion, but like Coolidge's "educated derelicts" we won't make a difference unless we act.

To the former, "The unexamined life is not worth living." That's Socrates. To the derelicts, no excuses, Beethoven was deaf. To the "make love not war" VW van dweller—to you I give respect for standing for what you believe; but, before you say another word or hold up another sign naked, try rationing your gasoline for a year, eating rice with your hands, go attempt to have a rational conversation with the Taliban and drop yourself in the midst of a suicidal terrorist camp. If you make it back – I'll listen to why we should allow them to fly planes into our towers without immediate and decisive response.

Finally, to the Taliban-sympathizers… we're coming to get you.

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Global Warming? Not in Utah!

PROVO - With all the hype about globalwarming lately, one would think that we would be out in shorts and tank tops slurping down lemonade with those little umbrella straws—not so in Utah. No, Utah has been having one heck of wintertime; a winter even colder than in Nome, Ak. In fact, Utah isn't alone! Two weeks ago there wasn't a single spot between Fort Worth, TX and Anchorage, AK that was above freezing.

Yet, setting aside this immediate surmounting evidence, experts are claiming that the earth is getting warmer and warmer with each passing day. Interestingly, even government agencies are recognizing a trend leading us down the path to a tropical world. The EPA recently released its latest report stating that the average temperature trend from 1860 – 1900 compared with the trend of the last 40 years shows only a change of 1.4 °F warmer. And to add insult to injury, scientist claim that 1870 was the end of a minor ice age with temperatures colder than average globally!

So, despite all the horror stories, don't worry too much about waking up in a pool of glacial run-off – more likely, you'll first wake up in a sea of crude oil after the US gets done in the middle-east.

Even college students—historically, the radical "save the earth" via protest and drugs—are having a hard time stomaching the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-from-heat-stroke phenomenon.

"The earth has been undergoing its own 'seasonal' changes for millions of years. We enter periods of extreme cold [Ice Ages, the last major one ended 10,000 years ago] and then enter a period of warmer weather," said Caci Chapman, senior at BYU majoring in Socio-Cultural Anthropology. "This cycle will repeat itself. No need to fuss about it."

So, until you can fish in your backyard in a pool of glacial flooding or Robert Redford changes the name of Sundance Ski Resort to Sundance Sandboard-like-in-the-Sahara-my-brotha-dude, don't plan on cooking your meals via solar radiation flanking the o-zone. We're all still alive, and most of us whiter and colder than we'd like to be.

2007-03-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

Since Sunday is the day to blog, I will give an update! However, since not much happened, I will mostly just put up pictures of cute little Jace. First off, Jace rolled over today!!! We never put him on his belly because he hates it. However, I put him on his belly today to see if he would roll over. I was getting ready for the day in the bathroom, so we laid Jace in the hall just outside the bathroom so he could watch me blow dry my hair (he LOVES to watch me blow dry my hair). So, he was laying there watching me, and then I walked into the bedroom. When I turned to look at him, he had flipped over! He couldn’t see me when I walked into the bedroom, so he flipped over so he could see me!! Isn’t that advanced?! He had no trouble doing it, either, so we think he has had the capacity to do it for a long time but has never had the opportunity due to the lack of belly time he gets. We know it was easy for him because we immediately flipped him back to his belly to do it again and then walked where he couldn’t see me and he flipped right over! He also had his first rice cereal today. He really really liked it, he just couldn’t figure out how to eat it—he had most of it all over his face, but really seemed to enjoy it. His little tongue was frantically licking all over the spoon like a hungry puppy—so cute.
Yesterday we all went to the Home and Garden show at the South Town Expo Center in South Jordan; it was a blast! Trevor went to every since chiropractor who had a station there, and incidentally signed up with each. He seriously signed up with five different chiropractors and even put down $20 deposits on the ones who requested it. I swear he is such an impulse buyer. Have you all seen those towels they have on T.V.? The orange ones that suck water up like crazy? Well, as soon as Trevor saw the demonstration he bought it—two actually. Every single person who gave a demonstration he bought from. He is so funny! I learned a valuable lesson yesterday—do NOT bring Trevor to event shows when he has cash in his pocket.
My favorite thing at the Home Show were the Sugar Gliders!! They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! They are from Australia and Indonesia and they are these little mouse/monkey animals. They are pocket pets that are like puppies. They form very strong bonds with people and are loyal forever. They are SOOOO cute! They are those little gliding animals that you always see on T.V. that fly from tree to tree—a sort of flying squirrel. I had the time of my life playing with them. We think we will get one next year when Jace is bigger. Also, at one of Trevor's chirportactor stops, we saw the guy from the R.M. and American's Mormon! He was worried about his back, too. We all got a picture with him!
The weather has been GORGEOUS lately so today we went to the Heber City Railroad Park. It was so cute to see all the little kids fishing in the pond; five little freckle faced boys with Huckleberry Finn hair were all lined up with their fishing rods so Trevor went over there and asked them what they usually catch. They started telling him and then one of them was like, “Yeah, its way cool to fish, but you can only do it if you are 12 or under.” And then another chided in, “Yeah… or handicapped.” Then another added, “Yep! I’ll be able to fish for the rest of my life!” Aren’t 10 year old little boys so cute?
That seems to be all for now! Enjoy the pics of our adorable baby!

2007-03-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

I had written the previous post a couple days ago. However, I was unable to post it because Blogger decided that our blog was a Spam Blog and was trying to delete it! I had to write Blogger and tell them not to delete it! Anyway, all is cool now and we are back to blogging!
Davy and Mikey came up this past weekend to go to Trevor’s training meeting. A word on that: So, Orkin was supposed to have a big training meeting for all of the teams in Southern California but then things fell through and it got scheduled for the next week. Trevor has some guys in St. George who had already gotten work off in order to be at the meeting at the originally scheduled date. So, there was this conflict of dates, guys had already gotten work off, etc. etc. So, Trevor just held his own meeting with his guys and it was so impressive that Trevor’s boss asked Trevor if he could have his entire presentation to show the big guys over the entire sales program! Isn’t that cool?! Trevor is such a stud!
Anyway, the training meeting was a huge success and we had a great time with Davy and Mikey. We played a lot of video games, ate pizza, watched movies, and went to Tucanoes. We always love it when people come visit because then it is an excuse to go there! After Tucanoes we went to Casino Royal at 12:05am. However, Davy and Mikey both fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie so we just woke them up and went home. Highschoolers are not used to the late night partying that college kids are used to. In fact, Davy brought a queen sized blanket into the theater, curled up (before the movie even began) in that little section between the handicapped seats and went right to sleep. He didn’t even attempt to watch it, that lazy sack of potatoes!
Kinsi was a trooper at Tucanoes and entered the animal slaying den in order to be with the family. Although a strict vegetarian, she went and watched as skewer after skewer of thick bloody meat was brought to our table again and again. The things some people will do to be with family! On Sunday we went to church with Kinsi and then we all came home for spaghetti and Halo. Jini came over, too, and we played ticket to ride. I beat the PANTS of off EVERYONE! To say Trevor was utterly amazed would be an understatement.
It was Mom and Dad Suttner’s Anniversary on the 27th of February and Mom and Dad Chapman’s on March 3rd—Happy 25 years to you all!!!! To those who do not know, this is a very interesting phenomenon—Trevor’s parents lived in Philadelphia, PA and were married in the Washington D.C. Temple on March 3rd. My parent’s lived in Kentucky and Tennessee and were married in the Washington D.C. Temple just 4 days earlier on February 27th. Each couple was married in the same room, in the same temple, by the same sealer just 4 days apart from one another!! Isn’t that INCREDIBLE!? Who can deny that Trevor and I were just meant to be?! Again, not much to say, but pictures make up for it! The picture of Jace upside down on my lap is SO cute! We were sitting there watching T.V. and I had Jace on my lap, and he would scoot all the way down and hang his head over backwards so he could watch T.V., too. He is so cute! The picture of Jace falling out of his car seat is a new trick he learned. When we have him in the car seat when he wants to be held, he will scoot all the way out of the chair until he is on the floor and then we will come running and pick him up.

Blonde

2007-03-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well we haven’t written in awhile and I don’t really remember much, so I will give a brief update and then just make up for it in PICTURES! Brooke and Rose came down on President’s Day weekend and we had a great time! We went right to work playing video games until 4:00 in the morning, shopping, challenging the limits in Ticket to Ride, and of course: TUCANOES!! We had a bit of a mishap, however, on the way to church on Sunday. We accidentally slept through ours (those video game parties are not conducive to arising at a decent hour) so we went to a freshman ward. On our way there to pick up Brooke’s car, we discovered that her tire was completely flat. So we went to sacrament and then tried to get the tire repaired so we could head up to Salt Lake for some fun at Temple Square. However, flat tires and Sundays in Provo don’t mix. We drove all the way from Wymount, down Canyon Road, and then up through Center Street all the way to Wal-Mart. We encountered just on that route at least 12 tire repair shops, but not ONE was open. Finally (much to Eli’s dismay, I am sure) the Wal-Mart tire repair shop came to the rescue. (Sidenote-- In that picture with Jace and the hat, he is singing. Isn't that cute?!) Three hours later the tire was changed—it was quite the ordeal; especially for Brooke due to Trevor’s unique ways of consoling the distressed.
Another monumental event was Kinsi’s 19th birthday; still a teenage but not TOO much of a teenager I guess! We celebrated by going to this really good Indian restaurant in Provo. It is called the Bombay House and it looks like an Indian house, all the servers dress like Indians, and it is just super fun! It was really funny, though, because at the table to our right were like six girls (probably roommates having a culture night) all dressed up in traditional Indian garb. Some had even painted red dots on their foreheads. It was quite funny because I think the traditional Indians were quite irritated. Happy Birthday to Kinsi!
Trevor and I also had a MONUMENTAL weekend. Last Friday for the first time since Mom and Dad Chapman left when Jace was 3 weeks old, Trevor and I went on a date by ourselves! We gave Jace to Daniel and Katherine and then went on a midnight hike through Provo Canyon—it was very beautiful and peaceful in the silence of the night and the beauty of the snow. We had so much fun, in fact, that the next day we gave him to Grandma and Grandpa Chapman and then went to Salt Lake and played at the Gateway.
Now... the biggest news of the Blog: I’m BLOND! Yep, you heard me right: blond! We have been talking about going blond for California (you know, to fit in with the surfers) for quite awhile. Finally we decided to do it! We went to the salon and after five hours of trying to strip layers and layers of dark brown dye, blond was achieved. My stylist was incredible; I don’t think anyone else would have been able bust through the brown. Since I had so much dark brown dye, they had to do a heavy weave, and then in a month I will do another heavy weave and then probably one more and then it will be done! I had no idea it was such a process.
That’s the news of the hour! Not much to say, but aren't those some dog gone cute pictures? Jace is SOOOOOO Sweet!!!!!!!!!!

Tricks

2007-02-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

OUR SCARY NEWS OF THE WEEK: We have been poisoned by Salmonella. I was watching the news this morning and in Utah the “Great Value” brand peanut butter and the “Peter Pan” peanut butter were being recalled because the batch number starting with “2111” was contaminated with salmonella. No joke. So, after I heard that, I ran to the cupboard, pulled the Great Value peanut butter down, and frantically read the bath number. Yes, unbelievably, my batch number was 2111. Trevor, Jace, and I have all been poisoned. If not for your prayers we might all be dead by now. Our jar is a 28oz one and it is almost gone! That means we ate almost 28 oz’s of Salmonella! Isn’t that exciting!?!!! Here's the proof!
Valentines Day was so much fun! Trevor and I had a picnic up in Rock Canyon Park in the exact spot he proposed almost 2 years ago. We then drove to the first place we said, “I love you” and exchanged gifts. Jace was a sweetheart and gave us the gift of sleeping through everything—what a good baby! We then went to the mall and walked around with Jace looking at all the fun V-Day things and Trevor got his traditional large fresh squeezed lemonade from the Pretzel Maker. He says it is the nectar of the Gods.
Apparently Jace got sick of being a good baby because he started inconsolably screaming his head off at the mall and we had to quickly run to Blockbuster and get a movie and pizza and rush home to console him.
Jace is growing more and more every day and learning so many little tricks! His newest trick is a devious one, if I do say so myself! He just developed the “arch the back to get picked up” move. So, I will set him in his swing and he will swing quietly until he realizes that I am not there and then he will start calling for me to come get him. If I don’t pick him up immediately, his yells will get more and more ferocious until he is really telling me “what for”. Finally I will come over to see what the problem is and when he sees me there, he will quickly arch his back so that he is being supported by his shoulder blades and heels of his feet in the swing just centimeters from rolling out of the swing. This is to say, “If you don’t pick me up, I am going to throw myself over the side of this swing!” It works every time, that conniving little boy!
Jace hates to be set down. Sometimes I can trick him into laying on the floor by doing the “diaper changing maneuver.” He loves to have his diaper changed, so I will lay him on the floor next to the T.V. and change his diaper. I do it really slow so that he will get engaged in the T.V. show. Then, when I can tell he is really interested, I will slowly slip away and he doesn’t even know I am gone until the show’s over. It’s great! He also has started taking baths alone. I used to have to hold him the whole time or else he would get afraid. Now, I just put a little water in the bottom of the tub, set him in, and he has the time of his life! He has started kicking and splashing himself and it is SOOO cute!
Another new thing he has started doing is “sit-ups”. We will have him on the ground and he will use his stomach muscles to lift his back and head off the floor to a 45 degree angle—it’s incredible! And when we lay him on the couch, he will do the same thing. He is so tough! We are still waiting for him to finish rolling over—he just can’t get his little shoulder out of the way, but he is making great progress! All these pictures of Jace and Grandpa Chapman are adorable! We went to visit them a couple Sundays ago and Jace and Grandpa looked like twins in their matching Sunday outfits, bald little heads, and cute cheeks! Look at those two handsome men!

Orkin

2007-02-03T23:47:00.001-07:00

Well, Trevor has been recruiting for Orkin Pest Control and he is filling up the teams quickly! He had a HUGE recruiting meeting today. It was really neat because yesterday he was like, “I want to recruit a bunch of people tomorrow.” So he made a bunch of phone calls, rented a conference room at the La Quinta hotel, got some games together, ordered a bunch of pizzas and drinks, and had a HUGELY successful meeting! It was AWESOME! He recruited some really good guys who are going to sell excellently. When Trevor wants to kick butt, Trevor kicks butt! He is the top recruiter for all of this region of Orkin. GOOOOO Trevor!
Jace continues to dazzle us with his charm. He has figured out how to suck his little thumb and it is SOOOOOOOO cute! He shoves his whole fist in his mouth and roots around for awhile trying to find where his thumb is. Finally, after much grunting, repositioning and slobbering, he finds his thumb. He then spends the next couple minutes trying to secure a good grasp on the little guy. Once he gets good suction with it, he is SOOOO content and happy sucking away like a little leech. He even has his own special way of sucking it. He doesn’t suck it in the traditional way like Jini and Julia did (perpendicular to the floor), he sucks on it parallel to the floor (if that makes sense). It is really cute. Oh! Also, he loses the strength to keep his thumb in his mouth (since he is doing it in such an odd way) so he takes his other little hand and braces his thumb with it. We will take a movie of the whole process—it is SOOO cute!
I finally decided to tackle the massive job of reorganizing Jace’s room since Mom and Dad Chapman left. Jace had yet to step foot in his room since he was born, so we thought it would be a big treat for him to see his crib for the first time in 3 months. We had been using it as a storage room and so organizing it was quite the endeavor. After a trip to Wal-Mart at 2:00am to get a bunch of free boxes and 18 hours of tedious work, I had the thing organized! Jace had a marvelous time sleeping in his crib for the first time! That is, until he noticed 5 minutes later that we weren’t there, woke up, and screamed bloody murder until we took him back to bed with us. We’ll see how this goes.
I know that pretty much the only reason people check our blog is to see picture of Jace, so I will post a bunch to make up for lost time! ENJOY!

Jace's Sleeping Patterns

2007-01-31T21:37:00.001-07:00

Well! So much for the constant updates I promised! I didn’t realize being a stay at home mom was so time consuming! Jace and I are having a great time spending the days together and Trevor is having a hectic time trying to balance a full school load, a full time job, and Jace and I. Such is life! Jace had his 3 month checkup yesterday and he is doing great! He is 13.12 lbs and 23 inches long. His head is like 17 cm or something but I would have to go check the paper to make sure. The doctor was extremely pleased with his strength and cognitive abilities; she said that she rarely sees such an advanced baby and he has the skills and strength of a 5 month old! He is able to stand by himself for an extended period of time (we just have to let him hold our fingers for balance) and he is able to keep his head in line with his body when he is being lifted from a laying position. What a stud! Also, today he was laying on the floor watching Myth Busters and I was making dinner and Trevor was reading a book. All of a sudden Trevor said, “Did you lay him on his side?” And I looked and there he was all rolled up on his side! And I was like, “No! I laid him flat on his back!” And by the time we looked at him again he had rolled up on to his OTHER side! He is going to be turning over before we know it!
Currently one of our favorite things is his wakeup routine. So, we all go to bed around 12:00 together. When Jace falls asleep we put him in his car seat which is next to our bed. He wakes up at around 7:00 so I pick him up and let him sleep with us so he will sleep longer. Finally around 9:00 (I know… we get up late….) he is just sick of laying there while we sleep so he starts grunting and thrashing around and kicking the covers off and cooing really really cute until I finally can’t ignore him any longer. As soon as he sees that I am awake he bursts out into giggles and just thrashes around wildly as if to say, “It’s a new day! Let’s play!!!” It is SOOOOOOO cute!!!
He is also SOOO cute when he wakes up from a nap because he always does the same stretches. He raises his tiny little arms up to his ears and then arches his back like a cat and just stretches for all he is worth in all directions. He then rubs his eyes and usually lets a stinker or two amid all the stretching. It is really funny.
Oh yeah--the doctor was also very pleased with his “turn taking skills”. We will talk to him and then he will talk back to us. For instance, Trevor and I will be talking for the longest time and Jace will be silent. Then, we will ask him a question like, “How are you doing Jace?” And he will answer with goos, gahs, coughs, and coos. It is SOOOO cute! So we will have an actual conversation with him with each of us taking our turns. Jace will even have correct intonation like he will talk angry or sweet or excited and will make the proper facial expressions. I am telling ya—we have a prodigy on our hands!

Happy New years!

2007-01-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year to you all! We’ve had a great Christmas vacation and are excited to go back to BYU tomorrow to start Winter semester. We came down to St. George on the 23rd of December to see my Grandma—Nanni—who had flown in from Kentucky to spend a few days with the family. It was soooo fun to see her after not seeing her for almost 10 years! We had a great time singing songs, telling stories, and playing games. She left that night. We were so anxious to see Nanni that we worked like mad-men to get everything accomplished by the 23rd—Trevor and I each had 5 finals, we had to get everything squared away with Trevor’s work, get Trevor ready for Europe, and on top of that, have our own mini Christmas, and then get Christmas presents for everyone else. It was chaotic to say the least! But, we were able to get it all done, and see Nanni, and do it all with a newborn—PHEW! So, after Nanni left it was up to the Suttners, Collings family, and us to party it up! It was so fun to have the whole family together! We must have played 30 games of “Ticket to Ride” and I must have attempted 30 times to get Lia and Justin to play “Munchkin” but every attempt was a brutal failure. I have faith that in time they will see the error of their ways!
The Sommervilles (our neighbors) were out of town and lent their big house to the Collings family and us so we were more than comfortable! However, once they got back, things got CRAMMED! We had Dad, Mom, Jini, Kinsi, Davy, Chari, Gabe, Boe, Justin, Lia, Julia, Eli, Caci, Trevor, and Jace—15 people—staying in a 3 bedroom house. People were draped on every couch, laying in front of every door, packed 2 deep on every bed—the things a family will do to stay in touch!
Christmas was so much fun and everyone got a lot of really neat things—Trevor got a trip to Europe! On December 28th my dad and I dropped Trevor off at the Las Vegas airport. It was super super sad, but he was super excited to make a film series all over Europe called “Forgotten Planet” which he will air on PBS stations. Our sadness was intermingled with excitement, but after 5 days being apart, there was not an ounce of excitement mingling with that sadness—the sadness had eaten it all up! So Trevor tried to but on a happy face for the camera as he toured Rome, Venice, Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam, and a plethora of other places. It got so bad, in fact, that his film crew told him they would not film another shot unless he put on a convincing smile. We were able to Skype (video chat) almost every day, so that was good. But, the woe is over because HE COMES HOME TODAY!!! HOORAY!!! Jace and I leave for the airport in 2 hours!
It was been really sad having him gone, but it has been a lot of fun playing with my family! All the kids love Jace to death and no one seems to be able to get enough holding time. I especially have to battle Davy over him, because he always wants to snuggle and kiss him; it’s really cute. It was super fun to see Beth and Laura last night! Laura with her 8 month old, and Beth with her tiny 18 week tummy—it is amazing to see how things change!
Jace and I will be heading out to get Trevor, like I said, in 2 hours, and then we will be in Provo tomorrow! And I promise I will quit being so negligent in our Blog keeping—I was doing so well before Fall semester started, you have to give me credit for that! I am now just a stay at home mom—how wonderful!

Update #2

2006-12-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

OK! And now for update #2! I know we have been ridiculously lackadaisical in our blog updates, but things have just been absolutely crazy here! I am going to try to remember what happened since our last post.
Our friends Jonas and Dohnele stopped by on their way to their new home in Oregon so it was a lot of fun to chat with them and have our babies play with each other. Their baby, Emma, is 3 ½ months older than Jace but so much bigger! We thought this picture of their size difference was hilarious; she is so cute! Trevor’s dad arrived a few days later and we had a great time with him! He also helped out watching Jace, taking us to classes, fixing our car lights, etc. He was a lifesaver, too, and we are so thankful for the time and help he and Trevor’s mom gave to us. It was so much fun playing X-Box until 3:00 am with them!
Jace was blessed on November 19th. He was SO handsome in his little tuxedo! I had bought his tuxedo for him when he was still in embryo, but we thought the tiny thing would for sure fit him when he got here. However, when we went to try it on him the week before the blessing we found that the tiny little outfit was GIGANTIC on him. So, Trevor’s mom and I went on a mission to find a blessing outfit that would fit him. We went to store after store to no avail. There was not one tiny tuxedo in the whole of Utah Valley. We gave up on finding white tuxedoes and were ready to settle on anything white we could find. Finally we found this adorable little white sleeper that said, “Grandma’s Little Angele” on it. He looked radiantly handsome in it, but Trevor refused to have his first born blessed in a sleeper with cartoon animals on it, so I went to work miniaturizing the already minute tuxedo. The end result was well worth the work because he looked like a miniaturized James Bond—what a stud!
My family came up for the blessing and Trevor’s grandparents and Aunt and Uncle and cousins and a bunch of others came to the blessing. Afterwards we had a hamburger cookout. It was so fun and the weather was beautiful.
We went down to St. George for Thanksgiving with my family. As always we had our annual turkey bowl (minus the over-inflated turkey this time). The Thanksgiving menu was Martha Stewart’s suggestion. Everything was divine and ranged from maple syrup turkey to cranberry apple stuffing. It was DELICIOUS! Trevor trounced Davy in one game after another: first at football then at trampoline basketball then at Monopoly. I think there are going to be a lot of rematches this Christmas! I trounced everyone in “True Colors” and once again another person was victimized by the ferocious “True Color” questions. My dad will never forgive the family for choosing Trevor over him for who they would most trust to catch them on a flying trapeze. So many complexes are born out of that game!
Once we returned from Thanksgiving we set to work on the Christmas season. We went to Orem to have our very first Christmas tree. We went to the Christmas tree lot and picked a magnificent Noble Fir. “Shocked” would be an understatement when I saw that beautiful Christmas trees really did exist. I was so used to the Christmas bushes we always haul off Pine Valley mountain—I thought those Christmas trees you see on Christmas post cars and Christmas movies was always an “ideal form” something like Plato's theory of forms-- something not truly reachable by any pine tree in nature. I wonder if my parents know that their Christmas trees don’t always have to look like front yard shrubbery.
We then went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on Christmas decorations which should last us until 2015. We got lights, bulbs, popcorn tins, cookie tins, poinsettias, tinsel—you name it. If it has to do with Christmas, we got it. Trevor is a Christmas FANATIC!
The next day we bought a cute little Santa outfit at Wal-Mart and then took Jace to get pictures with Santa in the mall; Jace was a celebrity! Everyone wanted to look at him. He was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute. He was such a success, in fact, that every time we go to the mall now we dress him up in it and prance him around so everyone will ooh and ahh. It works every time. We will see how well it works in July—I wonder if people will be sick of it.
I know we are leaving a lot out but I can not as of now think of anything. We are just going crazy with finals. This next week I am probably going to have a nervous breakdown, but after that I am done! No more school! Just Jace! Trevor leaves for Europe on the 28th so that will be a lot of fun for him. He is doing a TV series called “Forgotten Planet” that explores diverse places around the world. He will be there from Dec. 28th until Jan. 10th filming everything from Germany down to Italy. He might go over to Greece but we are not sure yet.
The monumental news in Jace's life is that he now weighs 11 lbs!!!! HOLY TOLEDO! Just 2 weeks ago he weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and now 11 lbs! He is seriously a little porker. What a beef! Also, no one is going to believe us but we saw it with our own eyes: Jace crawled today!! Trevor was laying on his belly on the bed so I put Jace on his belly on Trevor’s back. Jace was apparently uncomfortable because he kept fidgeting around and grunting. I didn’t move him because I thought it was so cute to see him laying there on Trevor’s back. Finally he got sick of it and decided to take matters into his own hands. He put his little feet down and CRAWLED all the way up to Trevor’s neck! It was so AMAZING! Anyway, I am going to keep this updated as soon as finals are over. Merry Christmas to you all!

Update 1

2006-12-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I know we haven’t been updating, but that is not to say we haven’t written any blogs… This is one I wrote on November 20th in fact. I will post it here and then write another one that is current. So sorry!

These past three weeks have been SO FUN! I can’t believe that tomorrow he will be 3 weeks old! Time just seems to be racing by. I need to highlight the monumental things that have taken place.
On Tuesday the 7th of November, Trevor’s mom Denalee flew down from Alaska to spend 2 weeks with us helping with Jace. She has been SOOOOOOOOOOOOO wonderful! We are SOOOO thankful she came to visit and help—I don’t know what we would have done without her; probably have a nervous breakdown. She has been cooking, watching Jace, burping Jace, dropping us off at school, cleaning—EVERYTHING. Who makes up those mother in law jokes? Mine is FANTASTIC!! We are going to be so sad to see her go.
Also Tuesday the 7th Jace was able to go off the Bili Rubin lights and his umbilical cord fell off! SO MANY MONUMENTAL OCCURANCES! We thought about saving his umbilical cord but it kind of grosses us out now to save that shriveled up little piece of flesh so we opted out. I have no idea where it is now—probably under the couch. Also, the reason I wrote this blog was because Jace had his first bath at home yesterday (the 15th)!!! It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute; he was like a little frog. It was so so so so sweet and I just had to put pictures up. It was so funny because Jace HATES to naked. I was changing his diaper and took of his clothes so he was 100% naked—something he hasn’t been since his birth—and he was terrified and started screaming. I picked him up and held him really really close so he would feel like he had clothes on, but he was so afraid that he couldn’t control his bodily functions and he peed all over me. I just suddenly felt my entire shirt go wet and warm. It was a little bit gross to be covered in urine, but he was so cute that it was OK. The pictures of him are so cute, but so that Jace will not hate us when he turns 12, we have made it modest “Garden of Eden” style.
Also, Trevor’s Dad got here on this past Tuesday. We picked him up from the SLC airport, saw Grandpa Chapman and then returned home for a big night of studying. I can’t wait to be done with school—just 4 weeks until the end of the semester! Hooray! Here are cute pictures of Jace; he is just the cutest thing in the entire world, and such a sweet sweet little boy. He never cries unless Trevor kisses him too much or he is hungry. So sweet! The picture of him in little jeans is so cute. I got him those little 0-3 month jeans, but they are HUGE on his tiny little body and he looks like Steve Urkle—I had to put that in. All the other pictures are just sweet.

***OK, well I am back and I don’t actually have all those pictures I mentioned. They are on Trevor’s computer. So, I have added in other pictures that are just as cute.

BilliRubin, at it again...

2006-11-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well, we took a hit from yesterday. Today his BR count is up by 1.1 at 14.4 compared to yesterday's count of 13.3

Good News!

2006-11-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone! Jace’s Bili Rubin levels are at 15.5! They are down from 18.8 yesterday! Hooray! We were VERY worried yesterday because they have to be hospitalized and get blood transfusions at level 20 so he was right there. But this is a GREAT improvement! We will take him to the hospital again tomorrow and if his levels are below 12 he can go off the lights. Spread the news!

Caci's Side of the Story

2006-10-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

Trevor did an excellent job of doing the play by play of the past two days’ events, but I will sum it up here. It has been quite the experience! So, I was due October 28th. We had a doctor’s appointment last Tuesday and I was just ready to have that baby, so I got stripped at the appointment, hoping that I would have the baby that night or the next night. Trevor and I were fully thinking it would come the next night so we spent the rest of that day and all day the next day (Wednesday) trying to get all the last minute details ready for his arrival. We went to the store and got everything we needed for the hospital, and I made a bunch of meals to go in the freezer so I wouldn’t have to cook later. We cleaned the house and made sure everything was perfect for him to come. I am still a full time student, and this week just happened to be midterms, so I was also working like a maniac trying to get all my papers done so I wouldn’t have to worry about them when Jace got here. I finished 4 papers the next day and only had one more to do.
We were sure the baby would come on Wednesday night so when Wednesday came and went we were more than disappointed. We decided it was because we hadn’t bought a crib yet; so we went to the store and found the perfect crib, brought it home, and assembled it. Right after that, I started going into labor and boy did it hurt like the dickens! So we waited until they were unbearably painful and close together until we went to the hospital so that we could be admitted immediately and stuck on an epidural. The contractions started about 9:00pm; we went to the hospital at 10:40. The Orem hospital is about 20 minutes away, so the drive there was killer. We got there and then they made me just lay there in labor until they could see if I was really in “active labor” or if it was just false labor. After an hour and a half of pain beyond reason, they told me that it was false labor and that I would have to go home-- I wanted to die. They gave me a shot of morphine so that I wouldn’t pass out from pain (I kept blacking out and throwing up because I was in so much pain). The morphine worked relatively well and I was able to fall asleep when we got home around 1:30am. Well, at 4:00am I woke up again in excruciating pain. The morphine was supposed to keep me sedated and pain free until about 11:00am the next day. They said that if I could feel pain, then it was active labor and to come back to the hospital. We stayed at home for about an hour to make sure it wasn’t false, and then headed back to the hospital. Trevor was so on top of things—he packed all the bags and had all his equipment ready so he could keep everyone up to date. He had his professional video camera, professional camera, laptop, chargers, transfer cables—the works—to make sure everything was well documented.
We arrived again at the hospital at 5:30am and were admitted since I was at a 4. The pain was unbearable and I kept asking for an epidural, but the anesthesiologist was not at the hospital yet, so they called him to come immediately; he arrived about an hour later. It was so funny (though not at the time) because he finally got there after I had been demanding from every nurse that they get him. I was getting pretty irrational, and then he finally walked in and started setting up the stuff, but then he got a phone call. “Sorry, I have to take this really quick,” he said. Then the conversation went as follows from his end, “Oh hey honey. Oh you left your backpack? Well, sweetie, I am giving an epidural right now so I can bring you your backpack after you get off the bus. Just tell your teacher I am coming…” I was about to kill him! I was dying there right before his eyes and he was negotiating when he would get his 3rd grader her backpack! Oh goodness! Finally he got off the phone, apologized, and went to work. It was cool because he numbed the skin with a local anesthetic and then did the epidural, so the epidural didn’t hurt at all. Trevor was watching and told me later that he stuck this humungous needle into by back and pushed with all his might to get it through the spinal column and then through the other spinal stuff and his hands were just shaking with pressure because it was so hard. Icky. Anyway, once they had that epidural in, I was on cloud nine. Things were a piece of cake! I didn’t feel a thing until Jace was in my arms! I was in labor until 3:15pm. During that time I was just sleeping and having a grand time. So I was in labor from 9:00pm the day before until 3:15pm the next day—18 hours. They broke my water after they gave me an epidural but I didn’t need any pitocin. I started pushing at 3:16 and Jace was in my arms at 4:16—exactly one hour! The whole thing was really easy and a lot of fun.
Jace is the sweetest little thing and never cries. He just loves to sleep and sleep and sleep. We were quite shocked when we saw him for the first time because he was so gray and his head was TOTALLY cone shaped—it looked like an upside down ice cream cone. I looked at Trevor when he saw him for the first time and Trevor was just in shock. After he got some blood flowing he turned into a beautiful olive color and his head is now perfectly spherical—he is an absolutely gorgeous baby. We love him to death!
My parents arrived at the hospital later that day. They were so great and helped out a ton—they got us a mattress for the crib, receiving blankets, towels, and everything else we didn’t have at the house. We stayed at the hospital until Sunday afternoon. We came home to a beautiful roast and a sparkling house—aren’t parents (and especially moms) the best? We have spent the rest of Sunday just being together and enjoying our new little family!
Trevor has been the most WONDERFUL dad—he helps change him every time, gets up with him when I do, and is so attentive to Jace. When we are asleep, I just go completely dead because Trevor is there worrying about every little noise he makes, so I don’t have to worry a bit! It is so sweet to see Trevor interact with Jace, because whenever Jace isn’t in the Bili Rubin lights, Trevor wants to be holding him. And whenever he has to go in the lights, Trevor does it because he is so gentle and careful and patient, and just will sit there for 20 minutes holding him in front of the lamps so he can get used to it before he is laid under it. Trevor is just the best dad ever; I am amazed at how attentive and tender he is with him.
We’re having a great time! Trevor is keeping the Mac website up to date—you can check it out at http://web.mac.com/jtrevorchapman .

photo and videos

2006-10-28T17:25:00.000-06:00

Everybody! GO HERE to see many pictures and videos of Jace and us!
or...
http://web.mac.com/jtrevorchapman

Photos

2006-10-28T16:35:00.000-06:00

Its a BOY!

2006-10-28T01:13:00.001-06:00

Will post photos tomorrow morning - dead tired. All is well. He (Jace) is wonderful.

hour-by-hour

2006-10-27T09:43:00.000-06:00

3:17 PUSHING... PUSHING HARD!
3:15 PM Friday :: COMPLETED - We are now trying to push on this next contraction. This is play-by-play...I am literally sitting next to Caci on the bed and typing. About 20 seconds until we start pushing.

Current Time: 2:53 PM Friday :: Still waiting, they just put a little bit of pitocin in Caci's IV. Still at a nine. We'll see what happens soon. We also filmed a bit more for a video but it wont upload!
Added: Picture of Caci to right.
Added: A possible way for you to view a quick videocast of our hospital experience. Its in the "Public" folder entitled "Labor.mov" To Play :: Click Here

Current Time: 1:21 PM Friday:
I fell asleep for a wile. When I woke I heard the great news that Caci is dilated to a 9 and 100% effaced...Just a matter of time now!

10:15 AM Friday :: Caci had her water broken

---------------------------------

9:39 AM, Friday
Finally, Caci is napping after a 12 hour ordeal...and there is still more. I'll give a synopsis of what has happened so far.

7:00 PM Thursday :: Contractions begin again after having been stripped at 1:00 PM
9:00 PM Thursday :: Contractions are regular at 3 - 4 minute intervals and very intense
10:45 PM Thursday :: Arrive at Hospital - No progress since morning visit to midwivery clinic
11:00 PM Thursday :: Caci begins to black out during 25% of contractions
11:55 PM Thursday :: Morphine shot given after decision that Caci is in early labor - sent home
12:30 AM Friday :: Caci falls asleep
1:30 AM Friday :: Trevor falls asleep
4:30 AM Friday :: Caci wakes because of intense contractions - we know that she is in active labor -- morphine does not help
4:45 AM Friday :: Caci takes hot bath and passes out repeatedly
5:15 AM Friday :: Nurses in "Labor & Delivery" recommend that we wait a while longer
5:20 AM Friday :: Pain too intense, we go for round two at hospital
5:35 AM Friday :: Nurses leave admitted pregnant patient when they see Caci and immediatley check her
6:15 AM Friday :: Having dilated to a 4, we are admitted into the hospital
6:30 - 8:15 AM Friday :: Caci repeatedly tells nurses she needs an epideral -- waiting on anesthesiologist
8:20 - 8:35 AM Friday :: Anesthesiologist administers epideral to Caci
8:40 - Present :: Caci is again happy...
9:25 - Present :: Caci Naps

Updating soon...

Video Blog

2006-10-26T18:32:00.000-06:00

Go to:

http://web.mac.com/jtrevorchapman

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

to view a quick video we put together in prep for this birth.

Coming SOON!

2006-10-24T12:00:00.000-06:00

We just returned from the midwivery clinic -- Here are the results:
Caci is dilated to a three (3)!!
75% effaced, soft, anterior, and the baby is at -1
Good Results! She also had her membranes stripped...so, we are hoping either tonight or tomorrow night!

Homecoming

2006-10-23T15:26:00.000-06:00

I know you are all anxiously awaiting the post that says that we had a baby, but unfortunately this post is not the one. We went in for a doctor’s appointment last Tuesday and they said I will probably deliver a few days early, so that is fantastic! It can happen any day now! Trevor and I have been going to the indoor track and walking like maniacs to get the show on the road.

This past weekend was homecoming so we went to the “Homecoming Spectacular” which was a showcase of BYU’s finest dancers, singers, and musicians. It was GREAT! The Folk Dance team performed, the Young Ambassadors, the Modern Dance Team, the Jazz Band—all kinds of groups. It was very very good. Sherrie Dew was the MC and that was also a lot of fun.

The next day we went to homecoming. That was quite the treat! Trevor really wanted to go, but I (being 5 days away from my due date and ready to pop at any moment) didn’t really want to go. So he kept asking me and I kept telling him that there were no pregnancy prom dresses in Utah and I didn’t want to go. It was all, however, a plot so he wouldn’t know what was happening.

On his birthday I bought a really beautiful cake (he would have seen me making one) and gave it to Kinsi to give to her teacher (the class that she and Trevor have together). So, apparently, Trevor walked in late to this class with 180 people in it, and the teacher said, “Trevor—will you please come down here? It looks like someone is asking you to homecoming!” So Trevor had to go in front of the whole class amid the hoots and hollers and accept this cake that said, “It would ice my cake if you would be my homecoming date! Find my name and number in the cake.” He immediately “knew” it was me and was telling everyone that it was me. Well, after class he called me up and said, “Yes!” But I acted like I had no idea what he was talking about. He continued saying yes, convinced it was me. I continued to deny it and countered that it was some freshman girl in his class that had a crush on him and didn’t know he was married. I guess I was pretty convincing because after about an hour of denying it, Trevor began to think it really was some girl in his class and then started feeling really bad (but flattered) that he was going to have to tell her no. He said that he was going to say, “I am so flattered that you would ask me, but it was just really bad timing—I mean, my wife is due this week, and she could go into labor at any time. I mean, if you had asked me one week later, everything would have been fine. But me dancing the night away while my wife is in labor doesn’t really jive too well with my wife.” It was really funny. So, he felt really bad that he was going to have to destroy this little girl. We got home from his birthday lunch and we decided to cut into the cake to find the girl’s name. Well, low and behold, Trevor found the name and number—and it was indeed me. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny!!!! Too funny for words!!!!!

We went to the Saturday night black and white formal dance. It was really fun. I made my own dress. It was black satin with layers and layers of black tulle so that my belly looked like an accessory! I wish we could post pictures on here because they are really cute. Trevor got to wear his three piece suit and stole the show. We go in for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning—everyone pray that he comes soon! We are so excited!

Baby Shower

2006-10-14T21:31:00.000-06:00

Today was so much fun! Trevor and I woke up and started out the day. His biology group was coming to our house for a biology meeting at 2:00 so I was going to just play until they came and then I would do my homework when they got here. So, it was 2:00 and then Kinsi called and said that she was sick and needed to be picked up from Jini’s house and since Trevor got her sick he had to pick her up. So, Trevor’s group was going to be arriving any second, but we needed to pick up Kinsi, so I told Trevor I would go get her, but he said that he had to go, too, and that he would just leave a note to have them just come in the house and I was like, “That’s not pragmatic—you stay and I will go take her home.” But he insisted and so he was like, “Just run to the car—lets make this quick and be back hopefully before anyone gets here.” So we run as fast as we can to the car, and fly down the road, and then Trevor remembered that he was supposed to have treats for the group but he had forgotten to tell me to make them. So I was all stressed and was like, “Drive faster so I can at least have something in the oven when they get there.” So I am totally stressed out and frantic and we get to Jini’s house and start honking for Kinsi but she doesn’t come out. So Trevor was like, “OK let’s go get her.” And I told him to just run up and get her since I am so slow and we were in a rush. But he said that I had to come with him because he felt weird that Kinsi kept telling everyone it was his fault that she was sick. So I got out of the car all flustered because I didn’t not think the situation was efficient. So we run up to the door and throw it open and I run inside and frantically yell, “Are you ready? Quick, let’s go!” And then, I stop and look around, and there are like 15 girls sitting there and I know them all. I thought it was a little weird but I was so stressed to get back to the house to make the cookies and get there before the group did that nothing registered. Finally, after about 2 seconds, I realized that these were all my friends and they were there for a surprise baby shower! I had NO idea! I was SO surprised!
It was way fun and it was so good to see so many of my friends. First off, when I walked in, I was set on my giant “throne” as I was Princess for the Day. I was decked out in a tiara, blinging earrings, bracelet, necklaces, even a diamond broach. We played “Guess The Pregnant Woman’s Girth” in which everyone estimated WAY bigger than I was—those punks! And then we played “Guess What the Baby Poopie is Made Of” in which candy bars have been melted into cute little baby diapers and we have to figure out what candy bar it was, and then we played the “Pregnancy Bag Game” in which pillows were tied to the girls’ bellies and they had to pick up a paper bag while standing on one foot with their teeth. Kinsi impressed all by winning, even in a skirt! We then played “Pregnancy Charades” and some of the things people wrote and had to act out were SO funny—especially Laur’a guess when the answer was “Cow”. I won’t go into it here, but it was very very very funny. All the games were a lot of fun, and then we had strawberry and crème filled crepes, and fruit punch. I got so many cute little things for Jace! So many cute onesies, outfits, diaper things, bath stuff, medical supplies—tons of stuff! Jini and Kinsi did a great job putting it on—I was way surprised and it was super fun!
Later that day I went to a reunion of all the girls on my floor from my freshman year. It was so fun to see everyone and have everyone see my gigantic belly and get updates on so many of my old friends. We are now all just counting down the days until Jace is born! 12 days!!!!
Trevor and I are about to head out to see “World Trade Center” at the dollar theatre—we have been wanting to see it ever since we saw the previews almost a year ago, so that will be really fun. We are STILL trying to find a way to post pictures on here. In the meantime, words will have to suffice!

Good News!

2006-10-12T00:34:00.000-06:00

Well things were a bit scary these past couple of days. We went in for our doctor’s appointment yesterday morning, and they found out that the baby hadn’t grown since our last appointment (a week ago) and he was 2CM smaller than he should be, and I had lost weight. So, the doctor was really worried and issued us in for an emergency ultrasound. They thought that the baby was not getting the nutrients it needed and had stopped growing so I would have to be induced to get it out ASAP. So, this morning we went in for our ultrasounds, and it turns out everything is fine! We just have a little baby, apparently. It is 6.4 lbs and 35CM. He is so cute! He has a full head of hair, and Trevor’s voluminous lips! We are a little worried about his chin—it looks weak… so we are hoping it was just the position his head was in or something. Everyone cross your fingers and hope he has a strong chin. Other than that, he is a CUTIE! We will see him in PERSON in about 2 weeks! Hooray!

My birthday!!!

2006-10-08T18:29:00.000-06:00

**** Well, I began this blog last week but then extenuating circumstances prevented the completion and posting of it. So I am going to finish it up with recent events and post it on up there.

Brooke and Rose came down on Friday to visit for the weekend, and we had a great time! They pulled in late Friday night, and we all went out to dinner at Fizolies (or however you spell it) and then went out for ice cream at Coldstone. Trevor was super super excited when he saw one of the Coldstone creations titled, “Cakey Cakey Shake” or something like that. It was a cake batter ice cream with big chunks of yellow cake mixed in. He was so so so excited, and then they gave it to him and he took a big bite and almost puked. It was very tragic. He tried to coerce Brooke into taking it back in exchange for another, but alas, to no avail. He was left to eat 3 more bites of his $6.00 shake, contemplate how President Hinckley would handle the situation, and then leave it to rot in our freezer.
The next day we got up a little late for conference, but all was not lost! TiVo came to the rescue! Oh yeah—we bought TiVo on Tuesday! We are super excited, because now I will have something to do at 3:00 in the morning when Jace won’t go to sleep. I can be watching “Good Things Utah” and “The Martha Stewart Show”! Hooray! Anyway, we watched conference which was really really really good for all of you who missed it, and then we went out to probably the best restaurant in existence: Tuhcanoes (I don’t know how to spell that one, either). We had a blast sampling probably 40 different salads and then reverted to our Neanderthal days as we ate all the various meats they brought around. Trevor and Brooke even ate the chicken hearts! Trevor said they were delicious and had the consistence of “tender meat”. Brooke, however, didn’t join in his enthusiasm, and almost spewed it all over the table. They were so gross—they were these tiny little hearts, shaped just like a human heart, but they were the size of a dime. Sick.
Afterwards we drove up the canyon to Sundance Ski Resort (which I just found out is owned by Robert Redford) and looked at the MAGNIFICENT changing leaves. It was breathtaking. We drove up the canyon a ways past the resort and looked down from the top of the mountain—it was awesome.
We then returned home so Trevor could go to the Priesthood session and the girls and I went SHOPPING! Alas, shopping is not as fun when you can’t fit anything over your belly, so I just bought Trevor some stuff and sat on the couches with the other pregnant women. They come in masses to the mall—I swear I saw at least 8 in the hour we were there. In American Eagle it was so funny because there is a Love Seat and then two reclining chairs. Plopped down at one end of the Love Seat was a gigantically pregnant (about to pop) girl, and then I plopped down next to her with my big belly, and then another gigantically pregnant girl plopped down in the reclining chair. We all just looked at each other with a “knowing” of how we couldn’t wait to get those babies out of us.
Brooke, Rose, and I finished up shopping and headed home. As we approached my house, we looked up in the window and saw a bunch of people in there. I was extremely confused and started trying to orient myself, thinking that perhaps I had gone to the wrong house, but no—our curtains were hanging right in the window. So I was really really confused and afraid, and went up to the door, and was greeted by an exuberant hug from none other than little Boe! The family had come up to celebrate my 22nd birthday! It was QUITE the surprise! I had no idea at ALL! It was so fun to see everyone! We had deli sandwiches and cake (a beautiful strawberry shortcake Jini made in honor of herself) and played X-box. We opened presents and the family had gotten me a boxful of my favorite junk food, a beautiful fruit basket with my favorite healthy food, and then $150 to get myself a rocking chair (the number one thing I wanted for my birthday). Lia and Justin got me three absolutely adorable outfits for Jace, and the Chapmans got me this super good makeup in all of my colors. I was very grateful for all the fabulous gifts!! They were all so wonderful—thanks so much everyone!
Later all the big kids and adults gathered in Jace’s room for a rousing game of Scruples. It was HILARIOUS! I think the funniest was when Brooke asked Mom the following question, “You live in a rental apartment, and the renter right next to you insists on doing Yoga in the mornings completely nude right in front of your bedroom window. Would you complain to your landlord?” Apparently no one had briefed Brooke on mom’s scruples on nudity. Brooke was expecting a gasped, “YES!” But instead got a round of guffaws from all players as mom rolled on the floor holding her belly with laughter and tears as she squeaked out, “No way! I would probably ask if I could join in!” It was HILARIOUS! Mom is a hoot!
The next morning we got up and had a beautiful breakfast of crepes at Jini’s house. I was amazed when I walked in and saw a stack of—no kidding—like 150 crepes stacked at least 8 inches off the table. When I make crepes I make about 12 and then call it good. We then went back to our house to watch conference. Again, it was a magnificent conference which dad snored loudly through. Next Brooke, Rose, Kinsi, Trevor, Davy, and I got in our church clothes and drove up to Salt Lake to listen to conference on the grass next to the temple and show Rose around. Conference could not have been more incredible there in that atmosphere. The weather was cool and perfect, the sun was shining, the temple beautiful, and Davy would argue the company fantastic. He met a new friend—John Jingleheimer—who he bonded with through the conference. A truer friend could not be found.
We returned home and had a delicious pot roast (wow—I am just noticing how much we ate! Gee whiz!) and said our goodbyes. Oh, but not before dad swept our front porch and informed us of the audibility of our windows. Both of which we were very grateful.

**** OK, here I am starting in a week after I wrote the above. On Monday was my birthday and Trevor made it so special! He is such a sweetheart! He had tests, quizzes, and assignments to do all morning, and he told me that he had to wake up at 4:30am so he could get it all done (the day before was Sunday so he couldn’t do it then). As everyone knows, Trevor really really really loves his sleep so I was really really impressed that he wasn’t going to break the Sabbath and he was going to sacrifice many hours of his very precious sleep so that he could get everything done and still honor the Sabbath. So we go to bed and the alarm goes off and Trevor gets up and does some stuff and then goes back to sleep. It turns out he didn’t really have to do all that homework (just a test later that day) but he was getting up to make me breakfast and get the day ready. So sweet! (It was the thought that counted although he didn’t really do it) Anyway, for the rest of the day Trevor and I were both running around to classes and getting homework and stuff done. Trevor finished and then banished me to the library where I was to do homework until my birthday was ready. I was there for about 3 hours and then Trevor appeared and took me home. We walked in and there was Jini and Kinsi there to celebrate, too! Kinsi had made a banana cake from scratch and it was really really good. Jini got me a gift certificate to the salon to get a pedicure since I haven’t been able to reach or see my toes for the past 3 months, and Kinsi had gotten me a bunch of things for Jace which she hid around the house for me to find as I went about my day to day business. Trevor got me a Cocomotion (which I have been eyeing for about 2 years now) and gourmet hot chocolate, and a top of the line oven mit (he noticed that I always went into his drawers and got his socks when I needed to remove something from the oven) and then there was a note that said the best present was in Jace’s room. So I went into Jace’s room and right there was this absolutely fantastic jogging stroller! It is incredible! It has EVERYTHING! I am SOOO excited and it is the only one in America that you can use right when the baby is born. All the other ones you can only use once the baby can hold its head up. I LOVE it and am SO excited to use it! After presents we had Pizza and watched T.V. It was very enjoyable evening.
Saturday we went to the Stake Activity which was a Chinese Festival and it was really really fun. We had authentic moon cake and Panda Express—what could be more Chinese? Trevor is once again sick so I need to go give him fluids, but happy Sabbath to you all! We hope we can figure out how to put pics up now. Trevor is going to have to heck into the system somehow. Lets see if he can do it!

Sickness, Couches, and Pente

2006-09-24T21:13:00.000-06:00

*** I just spent 15 minutes trying to upload pictures, and it is NOT going to work, so I have given up until further notice. so sorry!**

Trevor and I started classes at BYU on the 5th. We both have 14 credits and scheduled them to be staggered so someone can always be home with Jace. It has been pretty crazy—I drop Trevor off at 10 in the morning and then I go to the library and study and then we see each other in the library right before we switch between classes and studying. It is nice that I will be able to study with Jace at home in the mornings and then Trevor can take him after that when I pick him up. We are getting a feel of how things will go once he is here and we think it is going to be OK. All my Anthropology professors were extremely stunned when I walked into my anthro classes as big as a house. I guess it is shocking to say the least to have someone just 4 months ago look like a normal person, and then, without warning, the next time you see them, look like a beach ball was viciously inflated in their belly.

Trevor and I both are really enjoying our classes—he has a bunch of GE’s, and I have four 400 level anthropology courses and a religion course – Eternal Marriage—with Trevor. It is so fun to be in that class together and study the material together! It is the perfect class to take with your spouse! Today was our first day of church with our ward (last Sunday Trevor was on his death bed, and the Sunday before we had a regional conference in which Elder Monson, Elder Haight, and Elder Eyering spoke at the Marriott Center—Trevor and I had front row seats!) and we LOVE our ward! We love it! We are so excited for this upcoming school year! As mentioned, Trevor was deathly ill last week. He filmed a wedding reception last Thursday and it was raining really hard and we think he got sick then. We thought he just had a severe cold, so we just put him to bed and gave him cold and flu medicine. When the days past and he progressively got worse, we began to worry. On Sunday our home teachers gave him a blessing, but to no avail. By Monday his temperature was 105 degrees and his glands were humongously swollen. His fever kept breaking throughout the day, drenching him in a cold sweat, and then within the hour he would again develop a 105 degree fever. So, we decided to take him to Urgent Care. They did a bunch of tests on him and did bloodwork and found that he had some sort of viral infection. They could do nothing to treat the virus, but they could give him drugs to treat the symptoms, so they gave him codeine to mask the pain. He was drugged up and deathly ill until the next Saturday. His old mission companion and cousin came over and gave him a blessing on Friday, and then he was better by Saturday—we were very happy! I had been going to all his classes for him (except his Anthropology and Philosophy classes, because Kinsi is in those with him so she could take notes for him) and I was exhausted! He is now healthy as a horse and we are very very happy.

The big news of the week happened yesterday! My Saturday goal was to get Jace’s room all organized and set up so I could begin decorating it for his arrival in a month. So, I began the whole unpacking/organization process, and then Trevor and I went to the Wilk Board to see if there were any cribs for sale. There was a crib for sale and also a couch for sale. We wanted a new couch, so we went to see both. We first went to where the coach was being sold for $40. We got there and it was disgusting—totally 80’s and Koolaid stained. We graciously declined, and then began heading to where the crib was being sold. On our way we saw a tent sale at RC Willey and just decided to stop in on a whim. We parked the car, walked in, and then both of us saw a couch that was the most magnificent of all couches we had ever seen. We were enamored with its beauty and inquired into its cost. It turns out it is $1,700 usually, but it was on sale for $650! We spent the next hour deliberating as to whether a coach was worth a whole months of rent, and we decided we would never come across a couch of such unmarked beauty—so we got it!!!! We love it! We spent the rest of the day getting it delivered to our house and setting up everything in the front room. Everything that used to be in the living room is now in Jace’s room, so my Saturday project was a huge backfire. I have triple work on his room now—we have no idea what we are going to do with the 6’ LuvSac that used to be in the living room. It is currently just obstructing any hope of entrance into Jace’s room.

Also on Saturday when I was at the General Relief Society Broadcast, Trevor went to American Fork and picked up a picture Mom Chapman had left there for us when they passed through Utah last month. It is a picture of Christ that a ward member had made for Trevor while he was on his mission in Russia. It is beautiful and made of torn pieces of paper—a real work of art! Another Saturday project was the assembling of our table (what a coincidence we did it the same day as the Collings!) It was quite the feat. Things kept going wrong, like we couldn’t find the template for the holes we needed, so we had to buy a drill to drill our own, and then we got the wrong type of screws necessary, and then we discovered I threw away Trevor’s caulking gun, etc. It was quite the fiasco. But, after 2 hours of diligent work and a lot of shedding of sweat and blood, Trevor finally got it assembled; it is absolutely beautiful! This will be the first time we have had a working table at BYU in our whole married life!

Today we had dinner at Kinsi’s house and it was very very good—we were extremely impressed! It looked like something you would order at a fancy restaurant. I had no idea Kinsi had such culinary talent! We then took a blanket out to the sun drenched grass and enjoyed the weather while playing Pente. Kinsi always brags that she is pretty much the best Pente player on the planet. But we found that is an inaccurate statement; I beat her and Trevor’s socks off EVERY ROUD and it was my first time ever playing. Not to brag or anything, but what can I say? It’s all a game of stratagem and mental prowess. Trevor is not pleased (to say the least) that I appear to be much more of a military genius than him. Other than that, we have just been studying our tails off. Just 4 more weeks until we can post the heck out of this blog with pictures of JACE!!!

The Update of All Updates

2006-09-09T12:30:00.000-06:00

Holy Toledo! It has been a really really long time since we updated! I guess I can no longer spend my afternoons chastising those who do not update their blogs regularly enough for my entertainment. We have been terribly neglectful and we apologize profusely.
Things have been happening like CRAZY here on this side of the Blog. Since I don’t quite remember details I will give a brief account of everything I remember. On August 12th Trevor dropped me off at the Sacramento airport to see me off to Salt Lake for my family vacation. This was the first time we had EVER been apart since we got married and it was really really hard. It was funny because he stood by me the entire way and only parted once I passed through the metal machines and the security guards made him leave. We were obviously creating quite a scene because after he disappeared down the escalator (waving the “I Love You” sign the whole way down) all the other passengers gathered around me and empathetically asked if I was going to Iraq. Puzzled, I said “no”. They then asked how long I would be gone, “7 days”. I told them. They were quite shocked that a 7 day leave would produce such a show, but I guess they took it as a sign of young love—we were about to die!
I got to Salt Lake that night and Kinsi picked me up from the airport. Never have I been so afraid in a car. Apparently because her left eye is bad she has no sense of depth and asking her to stay in one lane at a time on the freeway is like asking her to blow up a hot air balloon with her nose; the task is near impossible. So I spent the next 2 hours (I know—it only takes 1 hour to get to Provo from the airport. However, Kinsi somehow got on the freeway that takes us back up to the airport. You can imagine our surprise when we think we are approaching Provo and then see the signs directing us to Airport parking.)
We arrived in Provo, thankfully unscathed, and then commenced on our journey to the train station where we were to take a scenic passenger train from Salt Lake to New Have, Connecticut; we were to board at 3:00am. We arrived at the train station all eager and anxious to begin our journey, but alas the train did not arrive until 6:00am. We spent the three extra hours at a Denny’s where Kinsi assaulted the homeless people.
We finally boarded at 6:00am and found our cabins. We had an entire passenger car to ourselves! The rooms were very comfortable and the view was spectacular! We all especially loved meal times; the food was delicious and we could have all we wanted! The train trip was super fun and relaxing. We had a grand time eating food, watching movies, playing games, watching the gorgeous scenery, and talking, while Dad and Justin had to drive for hours on end with the trailer with no sleep or food and only walky-talkies for entertainment. Yeah—it’s great to be a girl!
We arrived at Grand Central Station in New York City three days later. Jini, Kinsi, Chari, and I took a taxi to downtown New York (right next to Broadway!) and the rest of the family boarded a train to Connecticut. We commenced with living it up in New York. All of the hotels were sold out completely except for one “Best Western Luxury Suites”. It was a really really nice hotel and they had only one single occupancy room. So, I checked in as a single occupant and then the girls had to sneak up later. We had a great time with the bellman who kept our secret for a $5.00 tip. (Dad, do not worry—we do not make overbooking hotel rooms a practice, but it was either sleep on the streets or do that; we chose the lesser of two evils. We are very penitent and will never do it again.) The sleeping arrangements were really funny. The room was TINY; it barely fit a twin sized bed. So, Jini took the top blanket and slept on the floor to the right of the bed, Kinsi took the next blanket and slept on the floor at the foot of the bed, Chari slept on the bed facing up, and I slept on the bed facing down. It was a site to see but it was actually quite comfortable!
The next day Jini and Kinsi went to the Manhattan Temple, but Chari and I had forgotten our recommends and did not get to go. We spent our time in the heart of New York where we want to Time Square, Central Park, Fashion Avenue, Broadway, and all kinds of things. We even saw the Blue Man Group from Las Vegas perform. It was cool! We were later joined by Jini and Kinsi. We tried to get tickets to see “Wicked” but they were all sold out and our names were not picked in the raffle. Later that night we took a train to New Haven and rejoined the family.
Once we were with the family we took a tour of Justin’s new school—Yale Law—and relished in the beauty. It was SOOOOOO beautiful! He is going to have so much fun studying in those beautiful buildings! We then went to Boston where we toured the Harvard Campus and Dad tried to convince the boys that this was what they wanted to attain in life. The boys were too interested munching on their popcorn and looking at dead bugs to really pay too much attention to their destiny. We also toured the USS Constitution at the beginning of the Freedom Walk. It was super super cool. They had HUMUNGOUS battleships in the harbor and it was really interesting to see first hand accounts of the battles and war memorabilia. We also had fantastic sandwiches from a shop where mom almost converted the owner. Gooooooo mom! Every member a missionary!
The next day I flew back to San Francisco where Trevor met me. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO great to see one another after a whole week of absence! We just basked in being together for at least 3 hours and mused about the fact that just one year (minus 1 week) ago we had been in this exact airport on our honeymoon flying off to Norway. It was quite poetic. We then hopped in the car and arrived in Sacramento to be joined by the waiting Chapman family! All but dad had driven out to visit us for the week. We had a great time! And they were so sweet—they had a welcome home banner, a fabulous dinner, gifts for Jace, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me. What a homecoming! We had a really great time that week filled with days at the pool, shopping, and makeovers! It was SO much fun! One day we even went to San Francisco and did the tour there. We toured Fisherman’s Warf, Ghirardelli Square, saw the Sea Lions, had caricatures drawn, and even made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge. Azure was beside herself to be in San Francisco for, apparently, this is the place that Raven in “That’s So Raven” lives. She had her eyes wide open the whole time looking for the star.
We saw the Chapman’s off on the 28th (the day after our anniversary! One year!). It was quite a tear stricken event because they were leaving Brooke behind for Trevor and I to drop off at BYU-I. It was a very sad event but not to worry—mom and dad will be back in just 6 weeks for the arrival of Jace!
We left the airport and arrived home to pack pack pack! We were SOOOOOOOOO thankful that Brooke stayed behind because we don’t know how we would have packed without her help! I am pretty much useless with my blossoming belly and weight limits, so Brooke and Trevor took the lead and packed all the heavy stuff in. Without Brooke it would have been a NIGHTMARE (Trevor would testify that it was a nightmare regardless, but I thought it went rather well). We began our journey at 10:00pm on the way to the American Fork shop where we would stay the night. We had SOOOOO much stuff that there was no way that we could keep the seats up, so Trevor had to devise a way to seat Brooke. He packed so that there was a large space in the very back of the car which Brooke could comfortably sit in on the trip, and that I could lay in when my back got too bad. It was really big and spacious and looked very inviting until we found that we had forgotten to pack a bunch of pictures and mirrors. So, we had to stack those back there, which reduced the space by almost half. It was no longer spacious and luxurious, but the addition of the mirror did lend the appearance of space—Trevor is so clever! Anyway, so we began our departure. Brooke slept in the back and anytime we needed to talk to her we had to call her on her cell phone—she was only 4 feet behind us, but we had packed so dense and tight that her space was virtually soundproof—we couldn’t hear her, she couldn’t hear us. After a couple hours I switched Brooke because my back was hurting. It was very very comfortable back there with the thick sleeping bag and pillow. I fell asleep within minutes and woke up a couple hours later. Brooke and I again switched places and she slept until morning.
We arrived in Salt Lake at about 11:30am. We stopped at a rest station and all of a sudden heard yells of panic from the back, “Get me out, Trevor!!! Get me out!! I am so hot!!!!” Brooke was freaking out, having a panic attack, to get out of the space. We ran back there and opened the tailgate and out tumbled a sweaty overheated Brooke. Her hair was all matted to her face with sweat, her face was bright red, and she had a look of utter confusion on her face—we think she was mildly suffering from heat stroke. Apparently at night the little space was comfortable and cozy but when the sun came out it turned into a raging sauna. The sleeping bag retained heat, and the giant mirror reflected the sunlight. So, whatever sunlight might have missed Brooke was steadfastly caught by the mirror and reflected onto her. The sleeping bag dutifully absorbed all possible heat and then retained it for the occupant. The resulting effect was a portable oven where we were slow cooking Brooke. I know you all must be horrified, but it was actually quite funny—ask her! As I read over the description I must say it could classify as child abuse. However, ask Brooke—it was kind of neat! The other SOOOOO funny thing was the dialogue between Brooke and Trevor at the rest stop. We were all laughing about it for the next 3 hours.

B: Trevor, I am SOOOO hot—can I ride in the front with you and Caci?
T: Absolutely not! If we got in an accident you would go right through the windshield! It is much too dangerous! You need to stay back in your seat!
B: But it is SO hot! I am being baked to death!
T: You have to stay back there. Wait—maybe I can pull all the stuff backwards so that you can be sitting right behind me and Caci. Then you can be right there with us and have a lot of air circulation.
B: Yeah!!! That would be great!!! Thanks so much, Trevor!!

**Trevor then went to he car and inspected it. Seeing it would be too much of a hassle, he came back.

T: Actually Brooke, I don’t think it is going to work. It will be way too much work to move everything.

**All the hope and glimmer washed from Brooke’s face.

B: OK. Well, can we at least put the sleeping bag away? It, like, is emitting its own sonic waves of heat.
T: Absolutely not! It is so comfortable! It makes it great back there!

**He then proceeds to fluff it up to make it really inviting.

T: See? Nice and comfy—get in.
B: OK, but first can I brush my teeth? I feel so gross—I am about to die from my grimy teeth.
T: Absolutely not! We will be there in an hour—you can wait until then.
B: OK. Well, can you open up the hatch so I can get in?
T: Absolutely not! Just climb in the window! Here ya go!

**Trevor lifts up the window so she can pull herself up and climb back in to her oven.

I could not a low this kind of unaccommodating behavior (Trevor had no idea he was being so unaccommodating) so Brooke was allowed to find her toothbrush, brush her teeth, and we put the sleeping bag away to reduce the heat. Trevor even devised a way to keep the back window open so she could have circulation. The whole dialogue was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny. When Brooke was brushing her teeth I told Trevor the dialogue and we were both crying with laughter. Older brothers are just insensitive sometimes!
We got to the American Fork shop a little later that day. We took showers and unpacked the stuff on top of the car and then headed to Provo to see Jini and Kinsi and switch cars with them (theirs gets 30MPG—ours gets 15MPG). We had dinner at Kinsi’s, went out for ice cream, and then went back to the shop exhausted. All three of us slept in the sleeping bag together since we had no other blankets. That sleeping bag has come in so handy, Jonas! Thanks so much!
We got up at 7:00am the next morning and took off to Rexburg, Idaho to move Brooke into her new freshman apartment. We unpacked her and took her to the store and got her all ready for school. When we got there, there were two girls already moved in but neither were there. We wanted to put her with the cutest one who she would have the most fun with, so we were looking at the girls’ stuff. One we deduced was totally gothic so we moved her into the other room by default. However, after we had almost completely moved her into that room we took a look at the girl’s clothes to see her style and we found at the Brooke was rooming with an Amazon Warrior! She was a size 14. Brooke was a little terrified and quickly went into the gothic girl’s room to see what the other side of the room held—we found the queen of the Amazon’s with a size 16! Little 5’ 1” size 6 Brooke was terrified.
We were later joined by the roommates. Her size 14 roommate was indeed a giant, but nice nonetheless. Then the size 16 girl came in and she was no Amazon—she was probably 5’2” but a size 16 nonetheless. Brooke quickly deduced that this was not going to be the gathering hole for the boys and was greatly dejected. However, we later found out that her 3rd roommate is a petite blond, so hopefully that has worked out. We haven’t been updated yet.
After playing with Brooke at BYU-I, Trevor and I took off around 10:00pm to Provo to pick up Kinsi and then to head on to St. George to play with the family for a couple days before school started. It was another long drive and we arrived in St. George around 4:00am. The next 3 days were filled, of course, with competitions between Trevor and Davy for title of the “Alpha Male”. They had trampoline basketball tournaments, go-kart races, Risk and Monopoly competitions, and so forth. I think Trevor creamed Davy in all of them. Dad was trying to battle it out, too, but he quickly saw he better stand out of the whirlwind when he was asphyxiated after just 5 laps on the Go-Kart track and had to be pulled out for the medical team to look at. That belly that many might think holds secret powers to the universe is not really as powerful as it has been made out to be.
Monday morning we again headed back up to Provo to move into Wymount! Mom and Dad so graciously accompanied us and made the move SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier. We were SOOOO grateful. Dad brought the trailer and we were able to unload the Rodeo and then fill up the trailer in just one trip from our storage shed. We were so so sosos soosos grateful that they helped. It would have been horrendous without their help.
We are now moved into Wymount Terrace and we think we are going to LOVE it! All of our neighbors are so nice and it is just a great environment. Trevor and I both love our classes. Kinsi and Trevor are taking two classes together—Anthropology 101 and Philosophy 201—so they get to see each other for at least 6 hours per week. That will be a lot of fun! We are really excited for the upcoming months and for our BABY! Just 6 weeks away! Woo-hoo! Now that we are all caught up I will stay on top of things and keep updated. Whew—I am writing this in Microsoft Word and it is 5 pages long. Wow.

The Strongest Dad

2006-08-12T21:22:00.000-06:00

My friend Laura e-mailed this to me. It is such a touching story I wanted you all to read it.

Strongest Dad in the World [From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids cars. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I stink.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. ``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.'' That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. `

`No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every other weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Here's the video.... (click the link)

Trevor felt the baby!

2006-07-31T20:31:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, July 30th, Trevor felt the baby for the first time! We were laying there watching TV and then Jace started kicking up a storm and Trevor felt it!!!! Hooray! That is the big news of the month!! And also, we found our camera charger so we can once again delight you with pictures. Here is a picture of Kinsi that she is probably going CRAZY that it is not on the Blog for all to admire since she dubbed it "The most beautiful picture ever taken of me". So here is Kinsi in all her faked-haired glory.

Suttner Trip!

2006-07-30T15:30:00.000-06:00

Whew! What an eventful week! Much too much happened and there are far too many pictures, so I will follow in the footsteps of Jini and list a more photo album type of entry rather than a journal type. We dropped Davy and Mikey off at EFY in Santa Barbara on Monday. Tuesday we had a day to recoup, and then Wednesday we were joined by the Suttner girls! Jini, Kinsi, and Chari came down for a week of beaches, shopping, and sunshine. The first day Kinsi deemed a “California Day” doing what most Californians do—primp! So we planned on a day of facials and manicures. After the manicures we were so pooped that the facials had to go on the back shelf. The toes turned out super cute! Notice Trevor’s cute toes in the picture—he was happy to be a part of it all! After the toes we made caramel apples and watched a movie.

The next day was spent shopping and soaking in the sun. We went to the magical land of Ross where we shopped until we dropped. All—including Chari—agreed that this was by far the most wonderful Ross they had ever encountered. Jini got like 7 shirts and a pair of jeans all for $40! We used this trip to highjack Chari’s wardrobe and start dressing her like the pretty little girl she is. All track pants, basketball shorts, and athletic t’s were banned. She was a little reluctant at first when we forced her into jeans and nice shirts, but as we went through the checkout line she exclaimed, “I am going to be the best dressed girl at school and everyone is going to love me! Thanks, sisters! You are the best!” (or something like that) Trevor was a total sweetheart and wanted to spend the mornings with us so he came on the shopping trip. However, after 10 minutes of shopping he conceded that he needed to go home and play X-box. As lunch time rolled around we all started receiving calls from Trevor—he needed us to come home and go swimming. So we jumped in the car and headed home for some fun at the pool. Trevor had rounded up all of the other Clark Salesmen and initiated a huge pool game extravaganza. It was really funny to watch Jini and Kinsi be “it” in torpedo. They really couldn’t understand the concept of the game, and Trevor repeatedly had to “accidentally” throw Chari into them for the sake of the game.

Afterwards we suited back up for the mall and continued to shop. That night Trevor took us all out to Mimi’s Café. It was SUPER good! We were happy Jini suggested it— it was delicious!

The next day we headed to LA for a day in Santee Alley! The weather was great, the traffic was pretty good, and the streets were not crowded. It was GREAT! We all got fabulous deals from the street vendors. They were selling purses 3 for $10! We all got the cutest shoes, purses, and sunglasses. We had a laugh out of the mannequins which were shaped like the Hispanic people liked—big tail ends! In fact, there were even stores selling padded underwear to make your tail end look bigger! It was really funny.

When we got home we headed to the beach. Chari boogie boarded and Jini, Kinsi, and I suntanned on the beach. The next day we went to the Farmer’s Market. It wasn’t as big as we thought it would be, but we still got a great deal! If you bought 5 lemons for $1 then you would get six lemons for free! So we got 11 lemons then went home and made fresh lemon bars. They were delicious! And here is my 7 month belly.

The next day Trevor joined us for a day at the beach. He and Chari boogieboarded, and the three girls, again, laid on the beach. However, after awhile the waves were much to tempting and Kinsi and I went for a dip; Jini continued to hold down the fort. We tried to play a trick on Trevor by burying Kinsi up to her head and then placing a towel over her head for Trevor to pick up. He came up to the beach and we asked him if he needed a towel. He said he didn’t. We continued for the next 5 minutes to devise ways for him to pick up the towel. Finally we just said, “Will you pass us that towel?” He picked it up and tossed it to us and didn’t see Kinsi. He looked down casually and was like, “Oh, hi, Kinsi.” The plan was a miserable failure. There was a dead sea lion on the beach. Trevor wanted to take the skull and send it to his dad. Gross. After the beach we went to the pool to de-sand ourselves, and then the girls went out for icecream at “The Marble Slab.” We got birthday cake ice cream with brownies and caramel mixed in. Delicious! We then went to “The Di Vinci Code”. It was SUPER good! Jini got so scared one time that she screamed extremely loud (no one else in the theatre even made a sound) and threw the popcorn. She was banned from holding the popcorn for the rest of the night. When we got out of the movie we got a call from Dad—they were 5 minutes from Ventura! So we went to Barnes and Nobel where we met them. The family was together for the first time in a long time! It was so fun to see everyone!

Mom, Dad, Lia, Justin, Julia, and Eli stayed at the Marriott and the rest of the crew stayed with us. The boys had a great time playing X-Box. The next day we went to the beach and played all day. The food was great and the company better. I don’t have pictures of all that, so everyone else is going to have to send them to me. It was Justin’s first time at the beach and I think he only came out of the water once the entire time we were there. Eli and Julia were SO cute and it was so fun to be able to play with them. The day before they wouldn’t give us the time of day, but by the end of the beach event they were our best friends! Lia, Jini, and Kinsi boogie boarded with all the rest, and me and mom held down the fort (I was still recovering from my sunburn from the previous beach trip). After awhile, though, boogie boarding looked much too appealing and Mom took a spin at it.

We all went home, rested, and got ready for dinner. We went out to Macaroni Grill and had delicious and plentiful food. None of us were able to finish our meal and boxed it up for Sunday dinner. Sunday the family went to our church and then we just relaxed the rest of the day eating and playing games.

The next morning the family left. Jini, Kinsi, and Chari stayed to help us pack up the kitchen. Trevor and I finished packing around 7 or 8 that night and then went out to Mimi’s café because we loved it so much. The next day we just relaxed all day long. The next day we packed up the car and took off to our new home in Sacramento 7 hours north. It was REALLY sad to leave Ventura.
It was SO beautiful, safe, fun, and perfect. It was the saddest move we had ever made. When we arrived in Sacramento at our new house at 6:00 the next morning we thought we had made a HUGE mistake—we are living right next to California State University campus. We are surrounded by party hard CSU students in student apartments. The inside is actually pretty nice—and really big—but the outside is VERY scary. I am once again not allowed to leave the house by myself. Our location is pretty good and there is a lot of shopping, but we really really really miss Ventura. Oh well—we are only here for 4 weeks, we might as well make the most of it!

We are excited for the Suttner family trip on August 13^th and for the arrival of the Chapmans on August 21^st! We are in for yet another super fun month!

Davy's Trip

2006-07-16T20:10:00.000-06:00

***Sorry folks, but we didn't take many pictures-- a great loss now that I look back. We should have been on top of it-- sorry! The few will have to do to remember the exciting week.***
Hurray for Davy’s California vacation! We have been having a great time with Davy and Mikey visiting. I doubt Davy will remember what all we did after the week at EFY so I will sum it all up here. Davy was supposed to fly in on Tuesday. He was to change planes in LA and then fly to Oxnard (which is right by us). However, his plane was late and they missed their flight to Oxnard. So, the airline was putting them up in a hotel in LA. We got a call an hour later saying that since they were under 18 the hotel would not accept them but there were no flights to Oxnard that night. So, they were shuttled right to our front door about 3 hours later. That night we sat up and talked and played video games until early in the morning. Wednesday we got up bright and early and dropped them off at Six Flags for the day. I can not go on anything because of the baby, and Trevor had work, so they just had a good time riding the rides over and over and over until they were sick. They were there from 10am until 9pm. I think they’ve had their fill of Six Flags for awhile! When they got home we got pizza and had a video game night of Halo on Xbox live.

Thursday was SHOPPING DAY!!!! We went to Pacific View Mall and shopped ‘till we dropped. Davy was little Mr. Money Bags and was dropping money like there was no tomorrow. He bought 3 pairs of really really really cute jeans, a bunch of really cute shirts, and some awesome shoes—he’s going to knock the ladies dead with his fashion know-how. That night we went out to Red Lobster with the team for the team dinner. That day was opening day at American Eagle and if you tried on a pair of jeans they gave you a free movie ticket, so we all tried on a pair of jeans and tried to go to Pirates of the Caribbean 2. However, the only theatre that accepts the tickets is clear out in LA—it would have cost us $60 in gas just to get there, so we opted out. Instead we had yet another video game night.

Friday we had quite the fiasco. Trevor probably doesn’t want me publishing it on the blog because of its terrifying nature, but anyone who wants to know we will tell verbally. Trust me—it’s good. Trevor had gotten no sleep that week so Trevor slept while I took the boys to Surfer’s Point where they boogie boarded and soaked in the rays. At 4:00 we all went out knocking with Trevor. The boys wanted to make some extra money while they were here-- $200 per sale. They were planning on each getting 3, but alas it proved harder than they expected. It was SOOOO funny to watch them sell! Especially Davy. Oh my word. He went on the doors with Trevor for about 45 minutes and then felt ready to take the lead. He went up to this house and when the guy came to the door he said, “Hello, sir! I can see that you, like a lot of your neighbors, have an infestation. Since I am feeling so generous today I am going to sell you some pest control at a really discounted rate!” Oh my word it was SO funny! It’s like going door to door with diet pills and when the woman opens the door saying, “Hello, miss! I see that you, like a lot of your neighbors, are extremely fat! But since I am so generous I am willing to take care of it for you!” Trevor was about to die. Sadly neither of the boys got anything. We went back home and they went for a swim to calm their woes.

Saturday we got up bright and early and went to LA to Santee Alley in the Fashion District of LA. It is this HUGE outdoor flea market/shopping center thing. It is like Tiajuana except the people are selling really good stuff. I got 3 pairs of SUPER cute shoes. The boys weren’t finding anything and were getting really bored until we found this stand that was selling shockers. They had the time of their LIFE! It was so funny to watch them. There were all kinds of little toys that appear innocent but will severely shock you when touched (like flashlights, pens, grenades, guns, etc.). They shocked themselves over and over and over and kept devising ways to shock themselves in new ways (all holding hands and then touching it, one touching it to his pinky, one putting it on his tongue, etc.) they had the TIME OF THEIR LIFE. Davy was ridiculous and always threw it when it shocked him—the woman selling them did not appreciate that. They all bought a bunch. Everyone—watch out. Next we saw a nice Italian suit place that was selling the whole package deal—suit, tie, shirt, belt, handkerchief, everything—for $120. We got Trevor a suit and he looks AWESOME!! WHEW! I will take a picture later and put it up, but trust me—he looks SO awesome! It was $120 excellently spent! The boys also found some really cool knockoff sunglasses and shoes, so they really liked that. As we were heading out Trevor saw a stand that was selling air soft guns. He and the boys went crazy and again had the time of their life with the weapons of destruction. Davy and Mikey each bought a small gun and Trevor bought a pistol. They spent the next hour while we waited for the tailor to finish Trevor’s suit shooting each other. I will never understand boys. They had huge welts all over them. Ridiculous. While we were waiting for the tailor, Davy saw that one of the other customers had bought DVDs of movies that had just been released in theatres (Pirates of the Caribbean, Little Man, Click, etc.) so they went out in search of the illegal goods and bought five illegal DVDs. We came home and the boys watched The Fast and the Furious 3 while Trevor and I prepared our talks for church the next day.

Sunday Trevor and I woke up at 6:30am!!!!!!!!! That is the earliest we have EVER woken up since we moved to California. We finished preparing our talks and then got ready and then got the boys up and got to church 20 minutes early. We were feeling really good about ourselves until Trevor started looking for his talk—he had left it at home. So, in a frantic sprint, he rushed back to the car and sped home. I sat on the stand and just prayed that he would get back in time. Well, the opening announcements were read and no Trevor. The opening song was sung and still no Trevor. Finally, right before the opening prayer was said, Trevor came bounding in. I was RELIEVED! The talks went well—Trevor’s was AWESOME. I was EXTREMELY impressed—the spirit was really strong. We spoke on keeping the spirit with us. After sacrament we were absolute celebrities. Everyone was congratulating us and shaking our hands and thanking us. It was really fun to be so famous! No joke I bet at least 30 people shook our hands and thanked us. The cutest girl in our ward is going to EFY at the same time as Davy so that should be fun for him (however she is about a foot taller and a year older so I don’t know if anything will come of it).

We are going to drop them off at EFY in Santa Barbara tomorrow and then Jini, Kinsi, and Chari will arrive Monday night. The fun never stops! Oh and here is my 6 month 1 week and 4 day belly. Almost 6 1/2 months!

A Tiddy About Living Life

2006-07-10T23:24:00.000-06:00

Enjoy Life CLICK HERE.

MI3

2006-07-08T01:09:00.000-06:00

For our Saturday Night Date Trevor and I went to the $3.00 theatre and watched MI3. Trevor is the cutest thing in the whole world. The entire time, he was on the edge of his seat—literally—and didn’t blink. After the movie he said he blinked and his eyes wouldn’t close because they had become dried out like sandpaper from lack of blinking. He drove like an IMF agent on the way home taking strange roads, backing up in traffic, doing tricky u-turns etc. He is so funny! When he got out of the car—he didn’t even mean to do this—he jumped out, crouched down, and looked around before twirling out. He is so silly!!! He is currently pacing back and forth on our balcony trying to come up with a plot for his new action movie. I just keep seeing him flash in front of the window as he paces back and forth back and forth deliberately thinking.

On another note, our friends Jonas and Dohnele had their baby!!! They had a little girl, Emma!!! She is so cute!!!! You can read all about it at their blog jonasdohnele.blogspot.com. We are so jealous of them! How awesome!!! Congratulations you two!!!

4th of July

2006-07-05T14:11:00.001-06:00

Happy 4^th of July to you all! It was really great to have a weekday with Trevor home. It has been the first one this entire summer! (Besides when he was on his deathbed with illness at the beginning of the season). We started the day with a patriotic breakfast. In honor of Lia’s obsession with food, we will post pictures and a detailed description of the meal. We had “Red White and Blueberry Shortcakes” which were star shaped shortcakes topped with whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and fresh blueberries. We also had blueberry, strawberry, and whipped cream layered parfaits, and an awesome patriotic drink. It, too, was red white and blue layers. What you do is you get three different drinks that have graduated sugar contents. We used Cranberry juice for red which has 32 grams of sugar per serving, then Gatorade Fierce Blue Raspberry for the blue layer with 13 grams of sugar, and then for white we had diet 7-Up with zero grams of sugar. It was very beautiful and super cool!

We then headed to L.A. for the festivities. We stopped at McDonalds and it was really cute; it was all '50's cars and retro.

We went to “Kaboom” which was a motocross freestyle and monster truck show. It was AWESOME!!!! The best guys from the X-Games were there performing and they were SO scary. They were jumping off of this 50 foot ramp 100 feet over to the next ramp and doing tricks like back flips, kisses of death, one handed seat grabs and all kinds of things. Davy would have loved it. After that was the monster truck show. These HUMONGOUS trucks that run on alcohol were crushing Cadillacs, doing wheelies, and doing all kinds of super scary incredible tricks. The finale was when the Bounty Hunter—the number one Monster Trucker in America, and number 2 in the world—crushed this RV. We were thinking about Jae Sommerville the whole time—he would have been in heaven. After that they did the most incredible fireworks show ever. It was the second biggest fireworks show in all of California. It was put on by the same pyrotechnic people who put on the fireworks show at the Athens Olympics and Salt Lake City Olympics. Needless to say it was breathtaking and incredible. It lasted for about 30 minutes.

After that we headed home. The car has been acting REALLY bad lately. We keep breaking down, the car is only getting 10 MPG, and it is very scary. Traffic was HORRIBLE because of the festivities and California traffic is already really bad, so we were just praying our hearts out that we would make it home in safety. On the way to the show we broke down four times often in the middle of traffic. On the way home from the show we only broke down twice and it was always in areas where we could easily pull off; never when we were in the middle of super congested traffic. We were SUPER blessed on the drive home. Oh, and here is my 6th month belly-- just 3 months to go! OH!!! And I felt the baby for the first time last night!! Trevor has been playing the guitar and singing lately when we are going to sleep, so I was just laying there listening to Trevor sing, and then the baby started kicking to the music! He was dancing! IT WAS AWESOME!!! We hope everyone’s 4^th were super fun! Happy 4^th of July!

Another Ultrasound

2006-07-02T21:05:00.000-06:00

We saw our baby again this week! Wednesday we went in for our 6 month ultrasound. It was quite a different experience from our Utah ultrasound, that’s for sure. In Utah, they had a humungous screen on the wall where we were able to watch the baby. The doctor was super nice and was as excited as we were by all of Jace’s kicks and flips—it was as if it was his first time ever seeing an ultrasound, too. He answered all our questions and concerns and was all in all just really really nice. Now, take all that, flip it 180 degrees, and that was our Ultrasound experience in Ventura. The screen was merely the computer monitor that they had tilted away from us so we couldn’t see, the women doing the ultrasound was in training and had no idea what she was doing, the woman overseeing her efforts was very snappy and impatient, they ran the operation like a machine, and refused to answer any of our questions. Yeah, it was not what we were expecting. But, we did get another picture of Jace! And he is, indeed, a boy! It is so surreal to think that we are ACTAULLY going to have a baby! In 3 months, BAM! A baby!

Trevor decided his hair was slowing his sales, so we got his hair cut. That day he got 6 sales, then the next day he got 8! I guess the customers can’t resist his charm and dashingly good looks!

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for the company feast this week and it was SUPER good! It was AWESOME! However, I wasn’t that hungry and wanted to save room for cheesecake, so I only ate a little bit of my amazing dish and then had them box it up so I could eat it the next day. So, the next day, I microwaved mine and Trevor’s meals and we sat down for a gourmet lunch. Trevor was eating away at his, but I decided mine needed some salt. So, I got our two-in-one salt and pepper shaker and began salting my dish. The salt was not coming out very well, so I twisted the lid a little and shook it harder and then—SWOOSH! ALL of the salt and ALL of the pepper came pouring down in once gigantic tidal wave over my entire meal. Trevor thought it was the funniest thing in the world—I was devastated. I had to throw the entire thing away.

Saturday the girls and I headed to Thousand Oaks for a day of shopping, lunch, and fun. It was the most successful shopping trip I have been on in a long time! I got the BEST deals! For instance, at Clair’s there was a 10 for $10 dollar sale and it was GOOD stuff, not the usual dorky stuff. I added up the pre-sale total and it came to $148. I got it all for only $18! Pictured here are all 18 items. It consisted of 1 earring holder, 1 belt, 1 necklace, 4 bracelets, and 10 pairs of earings. It was AWESOME!! And then Express was having their huge annual sale so I got the most gorgeous necklace ever for $5.00 and then an awesome belt for $5.00!!!! Trevor couldn’t stand to be away from me, and showed up unexpectedly at the Thousand Oaks mall, stalking me, very forlorn. I asked him to join us, but he said, “I don’t want to spoil the girl’s day out—I will just get an Orange Julius and sit out here.” So he sat outside of Express and stared forlornly at me although his phone was ringing off the hook with all the boys begging him to go to the beach with them. He would just decline and sip his Orange Julius. No matter how much I asked him to join us, he always declined and opted to just sit and watch so at least he knew I was safe. Finally he was bored out of his mind and decided to just go home. When I got home I found him lying on the couch in total depression. He made me promise that I would never have a Girl’s Day again or else he might die. He is positively the silliest, most dramatic boy in the world!

After that we went to the Video Game store to cheer him up. He quickly brightened when he saw the wide assortment of military games available. We scoured the store for at least an hour and then left with 4 new X-Box games in hand. He spent the next 3 hours in absolute bliss. We then went for a swim and then headed to the video store and rented the remaining episodes of “24 Season 3”.

Sunday we were asked to speak in sacrament on the 16^th. Trevor is elated. Davy will be here for it, so that will be cool. Also, for all of those who have not heard the good news, Davy just finished his Eagle Project with a whopping 180 hours! Good job, Davy!

Trevor writes!

2006-06-25T13:23:00.000-06:00

Caci and I had a good time at our stake conference here in Ventura, CA. Today President Wood of the 7o spoke. What an eloquent speaker. One interesting and funny story he told was of his call to the stake council when he was younger. A visiting authority told all who were called that he would just be setting apart without blessing because he a plane to catch (back in that day the visiting authority set apart everyone from the nursery to the stake) and that if they did their job, they would recieve blessing. Well, it went just like that, "I set you apart...Amen." When the visiting authority got to President Wood he paused and asked if he knew him. President Wood told him that they did not know eachother but that he knew his brother who served as a missionary under his hand when he, the visiting authority, served as a Mission President. "Ralph Wood?! Are you the brother of Ralph Wood? Why young man, you need a blessing!" And so he was set apart and blessed. In President Wood's words the blessing went as follows: "... and now I give you a blessing, that as you come to know these men in this stake that lead these saints, you will come to find out that they are nothin' but a bunch of rascals - but its the best the Lord has to work with. And as you magnify your calling, you will find that you're nothin' but a rascal too! Amen." He then related that to the humbling experiences of Moses, trading the word "man" with "Moses" being nothing, which thing he had never supposed. It was a wonderful talk.

Well! Usually the family is running in horror at the excess of pictures of me! If all I have to do to have everyone begging for my picture was get fat, I would have done it a long time ago! This was taken about 5 minutes ago—22 weeks 3 days!

Yesterday was SOOO much fun!! We got up super early at 6:00am and headed down to San Diego to spend the day at Sea World. IT WAS SO FUN!! We saw so many awesome shows such as the “Pet’s Rule” show where dogs, cats, birds, and pigs did the CUTEST show. Then we saw the sea lion show where these two cute sea lions are trying to save their submarine from sinking, and then the dolphin show where the dolphins did incredible stunts, and then we saw the Shamu show which was very inspirational. We also went to the Bat Ray pool where we got to feed the Bat Rays and touch them. They were so slimy and rubbery and it was SOOOO cool!!!! They would suck on your hand thinking you had fish and it would tickly like a vacuum; it was AWESOME. And then we went to the starfish pool and those were AWESOME, too. We went to the dolphin pool but it they kept swimming JUST out of our reach—always 4”-5” away, just teasing us. I was very frustrated. Then we went to the Shark Reef and saw all the incredible sharks. The freshwater aquarium was really cool, too, because of the piranha, electric eels, albino fish, and all kinds of things. The whole park was just SOOOO cool! OH! And we went to this acrobatic show with all these gymnasts, acrobats, ring twirler people, etc. It was AMAZING! These people were SO strong and were doing all kinds of amazing stunts into the water which was in the open bay. It was cool. We also got to go to In n Out (We have only gone twice this summer! Last summer we ate there almost every day!)

I have not been able to find many cute maternity shirts (besides the ones Lia lent me), so I went to the fabric store to make my own. I got a bunch of really cute fabric, and then came home to make my creations. My first shirt was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute but WAY too small. I guess I was making it to my pre-pregnancy size rather than now, so its back to the drawing board.

Trevor has been having a great time watching 24—its awesome and we recommend it to all. He now is dead set on becoming president of the United States and is calculating how he can get rich and in the political circle before the age of 35 when he can run. He is already working on his campaign ideas and political platform—he is just too funny!

As an update on Alex—he is becoming very hostile. I don’t think he likes California. He has seemed very depressed ever since we got here, so I went and bought him some friends—5 goldfish. We put them in, and then about 2 hours later we went to see how they were adapting. The tank was all cloudy and then, out of the murky cloud, like on a horror movie, three mangled fish carcasses appeared against the glass. We think it was a warning from Alex. It was very scary and disgusting. The next day there was no sign of the carcasses. The other two fish have been living in terror ever since the attack. He also learned how to hiss—whenever I take him out he will glare at me and hiss ferociously. Yes, he is no longer the sweet delicate Alex we all once knew and loved. He is turning into a California hoodlum.

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-19T14:06:00.000-06:00

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there, and most especially Dad Suttner and Dad Chapman! It is SO weird to think that Trevor is also a dad! Well, partially a dad, since Jace is only partially a baby. To celebrate Father’s Day we went to Medieval Times in Buena Park, CA. It was AWESOME! I went once before with Grandma and Grandpa in Toronto and thought Trevor would love it because of the horsemanship, swordplay, jousting, special effects, etc. We were not disappointed! The dinner was awesome—a whole chicken, spare ribs, roast potatoes, dragons blood soup, etc. and the show was phenomenal. The whole time we were there Trevor was crunching numbers figuring out how much the company grossed per night, their expenditures to pay for the horse training, actors, cooks, etc. and their estimated gross income per year. By the end of the night he had concocted his own Medieval Knights—a Gladiator type of extravaganza performed inside a true to life replica of the coliseum. It’s going to be big—BIG! That’s my Trevor—always looking for the money! I will intersperse pictures of the night throughout the blog since we don’t really have any pictures of the rest of it. Oh—check out the website at www.medievaltimes.com. It was SO awesome!

We also celebrated the weekend with a 24 marathon. We cleared out the front room, pulled the mattress off the bed, gathered all the cushions in the house, ordered two large pizzas, and settled in to watch the whole second season of 24. It was SUPER good—very intense! Sadly we only got to about hour 8 before we were both dog tired. We still have 16 hours left and are very anxious to see what happens.

Now, for the much anticipated updates: my belly and Trevor’s sales. Trevor is selling like a mad man and is now back at the top 10 after an ENTIRE week of zero for being sick. He has been working really hard to get back up there after that fatal week, and finally he’s made it back in! He also was a winner in the first contest of the season—the top 10 salesmen for 6/05-6/17 get a really cool Clark Pest Control jacket. Trevor has been working REALLY REALLY hard to win this contest and I asked him if he really even wanted a goofy Clark Pest Control Jacket. He was aghast and turned to me astonished with eyes wide as saucers, “Yes I do! They are SOOOOO cool! They are black and have the really cool Clark Pest Control Cockroach on the back!” He was not joking in the slightest. It was SOOO funny! Whoever would work his tail off to get a jacket that had a “really cool cockroach” on the back must be a saint.

Another cute story about Trevor—yesterday we were running late for church. I usually start getting ready way before Trevor so that I can get him his outfit and get him ready (I swear he is just like you, Dad—he will starve to death if I don’t put the fork in his mouth). Well, I was running late so he was having to fend for himself. I heard a bunch of thrashing going on in the closet, and groans and whimpers from Trevor. He then emerged from the closet and staggered exhaustedly into the front room, collapsing on the couch. “I could only find one shoe!” He exclaimed in defeat. After a 45 second rest, and realizing that I was not going to find his other shoe for him, he went back to brave the closet one more time to finish the search for his other shoe. Oh the woes of having to get yourself ready for church. He is SO overly dramatic and he isn’t even teasing—he is so funny! I didn’t stop laughing about that until we were finally sitting in sacrament meeting.

We went to the doctor last Wednesday for a checkup and everything is great! I now have a HUGE belly—we need to take a picture because I think we haven’t in like 2 weeks. People now ask me all the time if I am pregnant, and I am now wearing maternity shirts. We’ll get a picture up soon. We get our 23 week ultrasound next week! We are excited!

Alex is doing well and he has learned how to hiss. He has grown about 400% since we bought him and he has successfully eaten all of his playmates. Trevor is happy because it means “his hunting and tracking skills are sharp”. It bugs me because we have to keep shelling out money on friends that he is inevitably going to devour.

Once again, happy father’s day Dads Suttner and Chapman! We love you!

Bodyboarding

2006-06-06T10:59:00.000-06:00

Has anyone heard the news? Rumor has it there is a prodigy in Ventura who is going to take the body boarding world by storm. Trevor heard the rumor, assumed it was him, and decided he better get the gear to go with the title. Saturday we went to Ventura Surf Shop and bought the most expensive board in the store, pro flippers, and a really snazzy rash guard—oh the joys of marrying an epicurean. While Trevor was searching for the most expensive board in the store (he really was—that is not a figure of speech) I was searching the racks for the cheapest board, told Trevor a turtle neck would work just as well as a rash guard, and opted to make him flippers out of old Tupperware lids and rubber bands. My thrifty suggestions did not go over well with Trevor and he walked out of there ready to dazzle. He looks so cute strutting up and down the beaches in his little outfit—everyone watches him and thinks he’s pro. Hey, without the look you are just a good body boarder! After we suited him up we went to the beach and body boarded for awhile. It was A LOT of fun—I got pummeled into the ground a couple of times by some massive waves; I don’t think Jace was having too much fun nor enjoying the gallons of seawater I was drinking. When I finally stopped to dry out and read, I had the WORST rash guard sunburn line on my arms. It looked ridiculous. Anyway, I decided that in order to get the full California beach experience I should read “Jaws” while watching all the surfers on the beach. It has been quite entertaining and it has brought a whole new dimension to the book.

After Trevor was worn out from body boarding we went to In ‘n Out and then went to our pool and ate and swam.

Trevor and I have been going through withdrawals ever since “Lost” ended; we are in anxious anticipation for the next season. So, we decided to start another super intense series: 24. We went to Blockbuster and got the first 8 episodes and watched the first 4 that night. Holy cow was it intense!!!! My goodness!! Sometimes I would forget to breath. Trevor would have to close my eyes a lot, though, because it is very scary sometimes. We finished the next 4 episodes yesterday and we are now officially hooked. We still like Lost better, but 24 will be a good fill in until the next Lost episodes come out.

Other than that the week has been pretty uneventful. Oh! Except when we were body boarding we saw a couple pods of dolphins!! It was cool! We were hoping they would swim up and play with Trevor, but no luck. Oh and I discovered the coolest thing yesterday. Sometimes I get scared of robbers when Trevor is at work, so I am always looking for church music to put on so I won’t be afraid. However, I have no CD’s and Trevor only has punk CD’s. So, I always have to resort to a play list of 5 songs that we listen to every Sunday that consists of various songs from “The Sound of Music”—it drives me NUTS!!! Anyway, I found this radio station called kzion that only plays church music! It is the coolest thing!! And it reminds me of Utah and BYU. I super like it!

Fear Factor

2006-05-31T16:58:00.000-06:00

Trevor worked like a maniac all week and then we went to Universal Studios with Jonathan and Jaime on Saturday. We went on various rides like “The Mummy” and “Jurassic Park” and those were both so much fun! They are themed rides and so it is really beautiful and neat. I especially liked the Jurassic Park ride where the T-Rex suddenly bears down on you—SOOO scary! Oh! And we went on the Van Hellsing haunted mansion thing and it was SOOOOO SCARY!!! Near the end you see this huge werewolf going crazy silhouetted behind glass and then, at the end, he comes out and grabs you. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!!!! I was clutching Trevor’s hand the whole time and as soon as I saw that guy I tore myself away from Trevor and just ran for it through all the people. It was so scary.

Trevor had the time of his life! He tried out to be on Fear Factor Live and was cast!! So he spent the last 2 hours we were there getting briefed on what he was to do, making a movie of himself, and all kinds of stuff. We all got front row seats at the event. He was so cute! They announced everyone and the contestants would run out one by one (this is a stadium of 2,000 people) and when Trevor came out he was hooting and hollering and making such a show—he was the crowd’s favorite. For the first stunt they were in these harnesses and hung about 40 feet from the ground and they had to hold onto a bar that was slanted. The first two to fall were disqualified. Well, they all came out and the bar dropped. Trevor was doing awesome—the other boys were shaking and you could tell that they were getting really really tired. The first guy dropped after about 45 seconds. The clock kept ticking and ticking—2 of the guys were shaking really really bad. Trevor looked good and strong—he didn’t even look tired. Then all of a sudden—BAM! Trevor and another boy dropped at the same time. We were all SO surprised; he didn’t even look tired! He told us later that his hands were just pouring sweat. Bummer. Trevor was really bugged that he got out—I am happy he got out because I did NOT want him to have to do the next stunts. In the next stunt the people were chained to this pole and they had to twist themselves around really fast until they had undone the chain. Then they had to run over to an aquarium filled with electric eels and grab flags one by one and chain it to this pole that was revolving and crossing over another pole (so you would smash into the stationary one). It was really really scary. After they had all their flags on they had to run over and drink their glass of smoothie. The smoothie (which they made right in front of us and stunk to high heavens) was composed of pig parts (eyeballs, spleen, heart, etc.), rotting fish guts, rotten milk, hissing cockroaches, worms, and grasshoppers. So sick.

The two who won that round went onto the one that I do NOT want Trevor to ever do. They had to turn this thingie as fast as they could and it was putting a constant electric volt through their body. The faster they spun it, and the closer they got to winning, the higher the current of electricity going through their body would be. It was so scary—it could give them a heart attack! This guy in the Airforce won. It was all very very cool. The guy who is in charge of all the scary animals let me look at everything before the show started. I held the back end of a huge python. It was cool. Then I just looked at all kinds of things like 13” long Egyptian Black Scorpions, 5” long Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, Bird Eating spiders twice as big as my hand (HUGE tarantulas), all kinds of terrifying snakes, etc. It was really really really cool!

Trevor was super bummed he didn’t win, so I think we are going back next week to try out again. He’s so cute!

On Monday Trevor instigated a team party. We went down to Red Beach and had a big barbecue and just played in the water. It was a lot of fun. We had HUGE steaks. They were delicious! Trevor discovered a new love: boogieboarding; he boogieboarded for 3 hours straight. Everyone else was sitting on the beach ready to go, but he was still having the time of his life riding those waves. When I called him up to have steaks he complained and said, “I view eating as a necessary evil right now. I just want to boogieboard.” He was really bugged that he had to eat that delicious, thick, juicy steak.

Today I made a pregnancy dress—it is bright pink and super cute! Other than that, all I can say is: why are we the only ones who update their blog? For crying out loud, people! Get on the ball! Oh! And here is my belly at 18 1/2 weeks. 5 months is just around the corner!

Bryan the Star!

2006-05-23T20:19:00.000-06:00

Hey! Did everyone recognize anyone in this moth's New Era? That dashing young man is Trevor's brother, Bryan! He's the Mormonad for the month! I am sure he will issue you all autographs if requested-- he is still so down to earth. What do you think of that?! I scanned it for those of you who do not get the New Era.

Once in a Lifetime!

2006-05-22T18:10:00.000-06:00

**Who thinks Trevor is so beautiful? MEEEEE!!!!** This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night the whole team went out to Black Angus Steakhouse and stuffed ourselves full of New York steaks (are you jealous, Davy?). It was SOOO good! Well, it was rather unfortunate because we got there at 9:00pm and we had tickets to see the opening of the Di Vinci Code at 10:30pm so we really needed to get our food pretty quick. Well, they didn’t bring out the food until 10:15pm so we had her bring out doggy bags and we took our whole dinners to the theater before we even touched them. It was sad that they weren’t as fresh, but it was fun to eat a gourmet meal while everyone else was munching on stale popcorn.

The Da Vinci Code was AWESOME!!!!! It was wholly inaccurate and the movie might prove detrimental to those with a weaker faith, but for those watching it for what it is—a fictional movie—it is REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recommend it to ALL!! It is so mysterious and action packed and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I really really really liked it! I think there were some scary parts, but Trevor always closed my eyes at those parts so I don’t know if it gets gory—I would assume not, but just in case, close your eyes whenever it seems scary. I totally recommend it to ALL!!! IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday Trevor and I took off with Jonathan and Jaime down to Newport beach. (I know in the picture to the left I look like I have a very pregnant belly, but alas it was only the video camera in my sweatshirt pocket.) We got there around 8:00pm and went to this Pizza place Trevor and I always used to go to down by the pier—Valentinos—and ate our pizzas on the pier as we watched the night fishers. Everyone was catching little mackerel thingies; it didn’t really seem worth the while. However, as we were walking we saw a bunch of kids gathering and yelling around this one kid—he had caught a 10” manna ray and was trying to get it back into the ocean. However, all the kids were terrified of it and so were trying to kick it into the water with their feet (the water being at least 5 feet away and the manna ray being much too sticky to move much with their kicks). I was horrified at the treatment and implored Trevor to save the poor things life. He came to the rescue, “What are you doing, guys? Are you trying to get it back into the water? Are you too afraid to touch it?” “Yes…” they all replied. “All right, let me get it.” So Trevor went down and picked it up like a pro and tossed it over. I was very much grateful and I am sure the manna ray is, too. I hope he didn’t sustain too many injuries during its kicking.

We hung out in Newport for a couple hours and then decided to call it a night. Jaime and I wanted to sleep on the beach to save money, but the boys insisted on getting hotel rooms because “They work so hard.” So we spent the next hour trying to find a hotel that Jaime and I thought was cheap enough. After stopping at 9 or 10 hotels, we finally landed in a hotel that reeked of smoke, had a crazy woman almost drowning to death in the pool, and only one queen sized bed. All four of us were going to try to sleep horizontal on it, but I think Jonathan and Trevor aren’t as comfortable as they were on the mission to sleep squashed up next to each other, so we rock paper scissored for the floor. Trevor and I ended up on the floor; however, we had brought the sleeping bag and were very comfortable.

The next morning we scrambled to get to church. We all got ready in record time, packed up the room, and went to a gas station to find the nearest church. We finally located it, came screeching into the parking lot, ran up the stairs with our scriptures flailing, and missed the bread by a mere 2 minutes. It was very frustrating. So we sat in on that sacrament meeting, then went to the first half of the next sacrament meeting and left after the sacrament was passed. We then went to our favorite beach in the world—Red Beach—and played the rest of the day.

Two absolutely miraculous things happened at red beach. First, Trevor found me two sand dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every single time we have gone to the beach I have spent most of my time scouring the sand for beach dollars and yet have not found one. However, Trevor found me 2 within 10 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS SO HAPPY!!! And then, the second neatest thing in the UNIVERSE: We were all playing beach baseball with a piece of driftwood and a tennis ball that washed up. We were just minding our own business when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a sea lion road a wave right onto our beach right in the middle of our game. He scooted around for awhile looking at what we were doing and checking things out. He looked at us for at least 5 minutes, and Trevor was trying to get it to come up nearer to us so we could pet it (it was completely out of the water and beached, but we didn’t want to scare it back into the water by going to it--- we wanted it to come to us). Trevor took a few steps toward it and was only 3 feet from it, but then it got scared and scooted back into the water and rejoined its pod. There were at least 15 swimming around together about 100 feet from us. We think they were swimming by, saw us (this is a military beach so we were the only people on it) and sent that sea lion in to check out what we were doing. IT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Besides our babies heartbeat and ultrasound, that is) That is something that you see in the movies—we were 4 feet from it the whole time!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! And the worst part is none of us had a camera with us!!!!! After that, Trevor sprinted back to where we had left the cameras (about a mile away) and then sprinted back so that if any more came we would have proof. Sadly, we had no more encounters. That was definitely the highlight of the weekend!

To the Hospital

2006-05-19T19:31:00.000-06:00

We went to my new doctor today in Ventura this morning. She is an Indian woman (Indian like Justin, not Indian like us) and is very much a feminist. I really liked her but it was really interesting to contrast her to my doctor in Provo. I think she escaped India and then became a doctor to prove to all the women of India that they do not have to be repressed and subservient to men. I like her, it is just weird how brash and, “Women power!!” she is. She wouldn’t even talk to Trevor—not out of deference but out of haughtiness. It was very interesting. But ANYWAY, we were really happy to finally get a new doctor and get a checkup! She has me on “high-risk pregnancy” right now because I was bleeding and has ordered me to bed rest. She says I am allowed to do nothing but lay in bed. No running, no exercising, no shopping, no ANYTHING for 4 weeks! We are a little bugged by that as we do not feel that anything is majorly wrong, but we will comply since she is so worried. We have another appointment this Tuesday to make sure everything is OK. They did a bunch of tests on me today to make sure the baby was OK and they also gave me a RhoGam shot in hope that my blood isn’t attacking the baby. We will see Tuesday if we got the RhoGam in time. I feel totally fine about everything and just think she is being over zealous. Oh well. Anyway, we are 17 weeks today!!! Can you believe that?!! That is 4 months and a week! Whew! Trevor is feeling better and will work tomorrow. He has taken the past 3 days off and finally made progress yesterday. His fever broke 4 times last night. We also bought the stuff for Jace’s quilt today!! IT IS SO CUTE! It has blue fur and green fuzzy fabric and red satin and then all the other squares are manly patterned (i.e. tools and work trucks) felt. SO CUTE AND CUDDLEY! He will LOVE it!! We think everything is fine with Jace but everyone pray to make sure! Oh and I am starting to get a pregnant belly; this is my 17 week belly today. I predict in 3 weeks I will be a full fledged balloon.

Movie stars!

2006-05-17T19:16:00.000-06:00

Jami and I had a GREAT day yesterday! When Trevor and I went to Universal Studios we got tickets to see Jay Leno. We got some for us and for Jonathan and Jami to go with us. Well, Tuesday came and Jonathan and Trevor made the responsible decision and opted to go to work rather than LA to see Leno. Those fuddy duddies! (Oh and Trevor got 7 sales that day! Isn’t he AWESOME?!!?) So Jami and I decided to make it a girls day out! We drove down to Burbank, found our way and everything, parked, and walked to the NBC studios. When we got there we were AMAZED at how many people were in line to see Leno! We had no idea it was going to be such a big deal! So we got in the back of the line behind about 500 people; we didn’t think we were going to get in. Soon, the ticket taker came around to check our tickets, and low and behold, we had special VIP passes!! She redirected us to the VIP line where we were number 10 in line! So we got in line and waited. The ticket person came around to make sure everything was in order and asked for our ID’s. Jami had left hers in the car which we had parked a mile away. So, Jami ran to the car in the blazing LA sun while I saved our spots. I was getting really nervous that she wouldn’t get back in time, and I wasn’t going to go in without her, so I was getting really worried. Finally, I saw her run around the corner, panting, gasping for air, with ID in hand. Well, it turns out that if you are in the VIP line you don’t need an ID so she was bugged.

We went into the studio and were seated on the balcony right in front of Leno. It was AWESOME to be in a place that you always see on TV! In high school I would do my homework, get ready for bed, and then watch Leno with dad and then go to bed. That was the ritual. It was so cool to be there! Jay came out dressed in a blue jean shirt and faded jeans, made some jokes and then dismissed himself to go put on his “dorky ill fitting suit”. He came out later dressed in a suit, and started the show. Ellen Degeneris and Peter McLellen (is that right? The president’s spokesperson who just resigned? I can’t remember his name) were the guests and the Goo Goo Dolls were the band. They were so incredible. You all have to download the song “Stay With You” so beautiful and AWESOME live. Anyway, the whole show was so funny and it was just so cool to see it all live.

Afterwards we left the studio and were walking around the corner when an intern said, “Would you like tickets to see the Carson Daly show?” We were like, “Sure!” So we took the tickets and stood in the holding line. Then they took us down to the studio—there were about 15 of us. We got there and there were about 120 people waiting in line—they had been waiting all day to get in—but they led us to the front of the line. Once again, we had gotten VIP tickets! So we walked in and they sat Jami and I on the VERY FRONT ROW ON THE FLOOR! We were one foot away from Carson the whole time he was out there. It was cool. And then Carson’s guest—I can’t remember his name (it is that Italian guy from the Sopranoes) brought Carson out this huge 4’ long submarine sandwich. Carson picked it up and gave it to us. He said, “Take some and pass it around.” Everyone was too embarrassed to take any, but I took a HUGE piece because I was starving. That was the life—front row seats with a foot long submarine sandwich. Then, when the band played—Rock Kill Kid—they had us go stand FRONT ROW in front of the singer. The camera man videotaped us a ton and we know we are on TV for at least 20 seconds. It was cool. Jami’s mom recorded the show and we are anxious to see it!

It was a very fun and eventful day! It seems that I was the only one in our family who had a fun day—Trevor has been deathly ill ever since yesterday. He has a really bad fever, soar throat, and keeps coughing up stuff. He stayed home from work today in hopes of recovery. Everyone pray for him—he’s super sick.

Mingling With the Stars!

2006-05-14T19:53:00.000-06:00

Well, once again, Saturday came and we PARTIED!!! Trevor works much too long and much too hard, thus we need to cancel it out with super fun weekends. This weekend we partied with the movie stars in Universal Studios! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!! That is the coolest place, EVER! We got season passes so we can go all we want until 2007! We did the most incredible things there. First, we saw “Waterworld” which is this water show performed on the set of “Waterworld”. It is rated the #1 water show in the world and was SUPER cool! Tons of fire, explosions, water going everywhere, jet skies, boats, acrobatics—awesome. Then we went to the “Terminator 2: 3D” movie. Holy cow I love those movies!! Again, it was AWESOME! Then we went to the “Shrek 4D” movie. What is 4D you might ask? We asked the same thing and boy did we find out! So it is like 3D where you have the glasses and everything pops out at you and you think you are in the movie, but then the 4D part is the ride! Your chairs move like a roller coaster or something to put you right in the middle of the movie. Like, when Shrek and Fiona are on the run away horses, our seats are going crazy and we feel like we are on the horse. Also, they inject smells into the theater so you can smell everything that the actors would smell—horse poo, cookies baking, fresh rain—it was awesome. And when the donkey sneezes, or when water is splashed or when it rains, there are these sensors in the seats in front of us that spray us with water and it feels just like the real thing! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

Then we went on the Universal Studios tour and that takes you through all the movie sets at Universal Studios. We went to the sets where tons of things were filmed and saw how they set up the sets. For instance, when we went by the King Kong set we saw Black Rock and the ship—they are all miniature things shot to look life size. It was AWESOME. We went through the street where Desperate Housewives is filmed and a bunch of others like Alias, Law and Order and all kinds of stuff. It was just awesome. Oh, and at “Waterworld” the actors were movie stars. Like, the guy from Law and Order, the guy from Alias, the guy from Westwing, and some other guys but I don’t remember what movies/shows they are from were there.

Then we went to the Special Effects tour. They show you how special effects are done in the movie industry and guess who they chose to be the volunteer? Out of the ENTIRE audience, they chose TREVOR! It was because of his dashing good looks and charm, no doubt! He had a fun time wielding a giant cat paw as it attacked a woman, being chained to a dungeon wall and tortured, and then having his arm hacked off with a knife. They were all done with special effects and it was cool! We went to the set where Nickelodeon Splash Zone is filmed and it was so cute to see all the little kids. I really want to take Gabe and Boe to that part because they will have the time of their lives. We can’t WAIT to take Jace there. I will probably take him there every day next season. We did a lot more stuff but I am getting too tired to type. Afterwards, we bought a bunch of overpriced candy at the Universal Studios candy shop, rented “Waterworld” and then took it easy. It was SO AWESOME!

Oh yeah, and we got tickets to the Jay Leno show-- we are going on Tuesday. Watch for us on T.V.!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2006-05-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

We would like to wish a hearty "Happy Mother's Day" to all the awesome moms out there who check our blog. Namely, Mom Suttner, Mom Chapman, Lia Collings, Dohnele Parker, and Laura Callahan (Laura doesn't check it, but I am just excited she had her baby!). So Happy Mother’s Day to you all! A more excellent bunch would be hard to find!!!

Following is the only story I remember from childhood and I remember it because I refused to read it because it was so sad and made me cry. I love this story and yet at the same time despise it because it was horrifically ghastly of that little boy to just grow up without even thinking twice about whether or not his mom wanted him to. I, for one, am not going to let Jace grow up. He is promptly getting injected with growth hormone inhibitor so he will always stay a little baby forever and never leave me. However, for all the rest, here is the sweetest most horrible story in the world:

I’ll Love You Forever

By Robert Munsch

A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang: